'Lynching' now a US Federal hate crime

[Eldorado]

"With supporters calling it more than 100 years in the making, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Wednesday that makes lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in U.S. history.

"The Emmett Till Antilynching Act was approved in a vote of 410-4.

"Only three Republicans and one independent representative voted against it.

"Advocates say there have been more than 200 attempts to pass the legislation in the past, and the latest effort has been in the works for nearly two years."

Full report at NPR: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/26/809705702/it-s-about-time-house-approves-historic-bill-making-lynching-a-federal-crime

And the ABC: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/emmett-till-bill-making-lynching-federal-crime-passes/story?id=69229940

[Michelle]

Was that really necessary? Now days you can be charged with a hate crime for calling someone the wrong pronoun.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

35 minutes ago, Michelle said:

Was that really necessary? Now days you can be charged with a hate crime for calling someone the wrong pronoun.

Yes it was quite necessary. Of the nearly 5,000 African Americans lynched in the US, nearly 99% of the local or state perpetrators escaped punishment.

This should have been done a long time ago.

You should read Emmett Till's story if you haven't already done so. It's heartbreaking.

[Michelle]

13 minutes ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

Yes it was quite necessary. Of the nearly 5,000 African Americans lynched in the US, nearly 99% of the local or state perpetrators escaped punishment.

The last one recorded was in 1981 and the perpetrators were convicted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Michael_Donald

Murder is always a hate crime regardless of race. It's a feel good act that serves no purpose.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

1 hour ago, Michelle said:

The last one recorded was in 1981 and the perpetrators were convicted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Michael_Donald

Murder is always a hate crime regardless of race. It's a feel good act that serves no purpose.

Not all murders are motivated by bias and, as such, not all murders are a hate crime. Nor are all muders motivated by hate, for that matter.

Although the purpose of the Emmett Till Act is largely symbolic, the legacy of lynchings persists:

Last year, a white student from the University of Illinois was charged with a hate crime for hanging up a noose in a dorm elevator. Nooses were found last year in an exhibition on segregation at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., as well as hanging from a tree outside a nearby art museum. In 2016, four white high school football players placed a noose around a black football player’s neck and pulled it backwards during practice. That same year, a private high school in Texas was sued for $3 million when a 12-year-old black student was left with severe rope burns after three of her white classmates wrapped a rope around her neck and dragged her to the ground.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/y3m5y7/it-took-120-years-but-the-us-just-made-lynching-a-federal-hate-crime

[aztek]

they should make slavery a federal crime too, 

[+and-then]

4 hours ago, Michelle said:

Was that really necessary? Now days you can be charged with a hate crime for calling someone the wrong pronoun.

What was done to Emmet Till was horrific and TRULY an act of evil and racism.  That said, who would have thought it wasn't already a "hate crime"?

 

3 hours ago, Michelle said:

The last one recorded was in 1981 and the perpetrators were convicted.

I was 20-years-old when this happened in my hometown.  Local losers who were wannabe Klansmen picked this kid up on the street by asking him to buy weed for them.  They beat the poor kid to death, THEN hung his corpse from a tree on the same street they lived on  

The outrage in Mobile was universal.  A jury convicted them all and they were truly brought to justice.  As an aside, this crime was the impetus for Morris Dees and his "Southern Poverty Law Center"  He won a lawsuit for Michael Donald's mother and basically destroyed the small Klan organization that existed in Alabama.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

5 hours ago, and then said:

What was done to Emmet Till was horrific and TRULY an act of evil and racism.  That said, who would have thought it wasn't already a "hate crime"?

Of course it's already a hate crime. But the primary reason that the more than 200 anti-lynching bills that were introduced in Congress failed in the past was because Southern lawmakers felt such a bill would encroach on their state’s rights. It should have happened years ago when it was really necessary and when its impact might have saved lives, and it is absolutely apalling that it wasn't. So too little, too late perhaps, but at least it's finally done. 

[Myles]

Our elected officials wasting time and money on a law that is not needed.  

[Scholar4Truth]

12 hours ago, Michelle said:

The last one recorded was in 1981 and the perpetrators were convicted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Michael_Donald

Murder is always a hate crime regardless of race. It's a feel good act that serves no purpose.

There is an actual photo of the crime scene  but its too gruesome to post here.