Jeff Jacoby: The Flames of Hate in Alabama

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3512540

Suppose that in 2005 unknown hoodlums had firebombed 10 gay bookstores and bars in San Francisco, reducing several of them to smoking rubble. It takes no effort to imagine the alarm that would have spread through the Bay Area's gay community or the manhunt that would have been launched to find the attackers.

The blasts would have been described everywhere as "hate crimes," editorial pages would have thundered with condemnation, and public officials would have vowed to crack down on crimes against gays with unprecedented severity.

Ten arson attacks against 10 churches - all of them Baptist, all in small Alabama towns, all in the space of eight days: If anything is a hate crime, obviously this is.

"I don't see any evidence that these fires are hate crimes," Mark Potok, a director of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, told the Los Angeles Times. "Anti-Christian crimes are exceedingly rare in the South."

But are anti-Christian crimes really that rare? Or are they simply less interesting to the left, which prefers to cast Christians as victimizers, not victims?

But real progress will come only when we abandon the whole misguided notion of "hate crimes," which deems certain crimes more deserving of outrage and punishment not because of what the criminal did, but because of the group to which the victim belonged.

The burning of a church is a hateful act regardless of the congregants' skin color. That some people bend over backward not to say so is a disgrace.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Jeff Jacoby's a right-wing columnist. He should be posted at Free Republic

They would be his readers, albeit they'd move their lips while reading his work.

[William Seger]

8. Jeff Jacoby is a right-wing idiot.

So, yes, he should be posted at Free Repugnant.

But real progress will come only when we abandon the whole misguided notion of "hate crimes," which deems certain crimes more deserving of outrage and punishment not because of what the criminal did, but because of the group to which the victim belonged.

The "notion" of "hate crimes" may seem to be "misguided" to Jeff Jacoby, but that simply supports the contention that he's a complete f'ing idiot. The reason that "certain crimes (are) more deserving of outrage and punishment" is based on the simple observation (simple, if you not a comlete f'ing idiot, that is) that "hate crimes" against groups have far more deleterious impact on society as a whole than a crime motivated by hatred of an individual by another individual. "Hate crimes" aren't just crimes motivated by hate; they're crimes that perpetuate the cycle of hatred based merely on group membership.

[sasquatch]

2. Put this shit on Free Republic

[Charlie Brown]

4. Jacoby appears to be the only person taking note of these incidents

If an article will make more people aware of the arson attacks in Alabama, I'm willing to post it here.

[sasquatch]

28. Bullshit, there's been church burnings in Alabama before

This asshole is using it as a soapbox to attack gays, democrats and liberals in general.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Is it just me or does anyone get a distinct scent of homophobia in that

article?

He doesn't seem too happy with the fact that crimes against gays ARE considered hate crimes.

[sasquatch]

27. The rate of homophobia in that piece is the same as the rate of-

alcohal in a bottle of vodka.

[JCMach1]

3. Al Qaeda in Alabama

probably did it :sarcasm:

[depakid]

5. This is some disgusting writing- didn't the Boston Globe

suspend this guy for lying (or some ethical breach) not too long back?

[TexasLawyer]

6. Christian-right call center

Someone just torched a Christian right political call center. I am sure that this has tugged at Jeff Jacoby's heart strings.

[Charlie Brown]

7. In fairness, we don't know yet if that was arson

I'm sure Jacoby will think so, however.

[AndyTiedye]

15. Maybe All The Fires Were Started By a Batch of Seriously Defective Candles

Seriously, it's hard to see what else it could be other than arson.

The question is by whom, and WHY HAVEN'T THEY BEEN CAUGHT YET?

It's the middle of the Bible Belt. I think if it really were a hate crime against
Christians, the perpertrators would have been caught right away.

Who could do this sort of thing and get away with it?



There is something really odd about this.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. Maybe

9/11 wasn't the Reichstag after all.

[Charlie Brown]

22. I was talking about the call center

The 10 destroyed churches are most definitely arson, and hate-crimes.

[LizW]

9. Jacoby should be all over the other arson fires in Alabama, then.

If a crime is a crime is a crime.

Since early December 2005, four arson fires have destroyed parts of apartment complexes here in Hoover, Alabama. The fires have been set in the night or early morning hours, while residents are sleeping inside. So far, no one has died, but residents have been trapped and had to jump from second story balconies, or lower their children down, wrapped in bedsheets, to neighbors below.

Dozens of people have been left homeless, including 14 children from just one elementary school (right before Christmas).

Apartments in this city are home to some of the city's poorest residents, including many Hispanic immigrants. During the last mayoral campaign in 2004, one candidate promised to solve the "Lorna Road problem" (hate code for Hispanic day laborers) by "bulldozing two or three apartment complexes". He didn't win, thankfully, but the winning candidate was hardly better. He pledged "No more apartments will be built in Hoover." Pandering to anti-immigrant hate reached epic proportions soon after the new mayor and city council took office.

The police department is working massive amounts of overtime, trying to catch who is setting these fires. People are scared to death that there will be a massive tragedy if this isn't stopped.

Maybe Jacoby would like to expound on how these aren't hate crimes, either. :eyes:

[radio4progressives]

10. how do you know that these are not set by christians themselves for

insurance or for setting up a phony hate crime war?

i'm just asking, where is the evidence that the gay community had anything to do with this?

I think it's a little early to paint this as a hate crime, when it might be a set up to make it look that way.

[Dr.Phool]

11. I'd venture it could be a serial killer in the making.

A lot of them start out being serial arsonists. Son of Sam was one, and another guy in Ohio a few years back, confessed to hundreds of arsons.

[kentuck]

12. He posted once on DU and was tombstoned !

a couple or three years ago... :)

[hfojvt]

14. did he write about it?

I used to read his columns either in the Wisconsin State Journal or the Des Moines Register or the Mason City Globe Gazette. It was like a car wreck I could not help looking at. Kinda ironic that he was an affirmative action hire at the Boston Globe. I hope he got thoroughly debunked and thrashed before he had his pizza.

[kentuck]

16. I don't recall...

He came in with some typical freeper crap and was tombstoned...I recall that....I think a lot of people had no idea who he was at the time...?

[hfojvt]

20. How do you know it was him

and not some poseur/fan-of-his? It must be nice to not know who he is. Then again, he is no worse than Joseph Perkins, late of my local paper.

[kentuck]

21. As I recall...

it was obvious in his name or in his bio...

[SpiralHawk]

13. Dominionist Agents Provocateurs started those church fires.

I would bet a sack of doughnuts on it. Jacoby is just doing the neoCOM demagogue thing on it to gin up the hate.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[dsc]

18. As much as I hate to admit this

he does have something of a point. While I will admit there are other possible motives, the one most people would assume if it were say gay bars, would be hate. I think it is a reasonable assumption in this case as well.

[AndyTiedye]

24. Too Obvious! The Police Would Have Caught Them!

I am sure that every pagan, wiccan, gay person or atheist in Alabama are being watched night and day by the police and by everybody else in town.
If they were not doing so already, they certainly would be after the first few churches went up in flames.

They would have been the first people investigated by the police every time.

No way could they do such a thing over and over. They would have been caught.

[dsc]

25. one can hate Christians and not be in the above groups

[Zynx]

23. While I'm not sure I support his end assertion, I do think there is an

organized campaign against the churches. That much is obvious and we have to find out who and why. If it is something beyond race and is a purely anti-religious motivation, that should be categorized the same as any other kind of discrimination. Just because it is against a minority does not mean that it isn't bigotry of some kind. After all, whites were a minority in South Africa.

[William Seger]

26. Could be...

... but that's exactly what's wrong about his blast at treating "hate crimes" differently: What goes around comes around.

Actually, I think the column sounds like he's caught up in his own previous spin: It's a hate crime, but he's already commited to saying those crimes shouldn't be treated differently, so the best he can come up with is insinuating "lefties" only care about hate crimes against certain groups. He's trying to have his cake and eat it too.