On Wednesday, Ebony Magazine’s Jamilah Lemieux criticized the use of the phrase “hate crime” in association with the five white Dallas police officers who were killed claiming that using the phrase with a “majority group… gets into very tricky territory.”
Appearing on “CNN Newsroom” with guest host Ana Cabrera, Lemieux said, “I have to say, I would not describe hate crime as the most comfortable word choice, considering these circumstances. There’s so much that we do not know about what took place, what motivated this person. We only have the one account of law enforcement. We haven’t had the opportunity to really look into his history in a meaningful way.” (VIDEO: DHS Secretary: ‘It’s Still Relatively Early’ To Call Dallas Attack A Hate Crime)
“When we use a phrase like ‘hate crime,’ we’re typically referring to crimes against people of color, people of various religious groups, LGBT people, people who have been historically attacked, abused or disenfranchised on the basis of their identity. To now extend that to the majority group and a group of people that have a history with African-Americans that has been abusive, and we can apply that to either police officers or to Caucasians, I think gets into very tricky territory.” (RELATED: Obama Says ‘It’s Very Hard To Untangle’ Dallas Shooter’s Motives [VIDEO])
“So I’d be curious to know if he was referring to this as a hate crime because he singled them out by race or attempted to single them out by race or because they were police officers.” (RELATED: Feds Investigating Links Between Dallas Cop Killer And Black Liberation Militia Groups)
“It absolutely fits the definition of the hate crime. You can’t just say that only certain groups are allowed to be hated, only certain groups can have crimes designated as hate groups, or hate crimes against them.” CNN law enforcement contributor Steve Moore, a former FBI agent replied. “That’s racism.”
“What you’re doing here is saying that the actual truth of the matter is that hate crimes are defined as a crime against a specific race, doesn’t list them, gender, gender preference group or membership in an organization. That’s how it’s defined. You can’t just say if you’re white, nobody can commit a hate crime against you. And this guy said I’m doing it because you’re white and I’m doing it because you’re cops. That’s race and that’s organization. It’s a hate crime as far as legally and it’s a hate crime the way the FBI would investigate it.”
In the wake of the Dallas shooting, police chief David Brown said the shooter, Micah Xavier Johnson told police his motivation for the attack was that he was “upset about Black Lives Matter” and “wanted to kill white people,” especially white police officers.
