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Friday, 2/23/2001
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Friday, 2/23/2001
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 Victims should report hate crimes to police
Wednesday, Judy Shepard, mother of slain gay college student, Matthew Shepard, spoke about hate crimes to a gathering of people on Purdue's campus. Individuals traveled from all over the state to attend the lecture. A busload of Indiana University students made the three-hour drive to hear Shepard speak. Still, in the days leading up to the Shepard speech, I heard several people around campus saying, "Why Purdue?" Why not Purdue? Purdue University isn't as immune to the heartache of hate crimes as you may think. The fact is, hate crimes happen everywhere — even Purdue University. Only a matter of days ago did this community discover that hate exists when a swastika was painted on the side of a house. Take a walk across campus sometime. You'll occasionally catch a hate-motivated flyer. How much hate do you think there was at the University of Wyoming before tragedy befell young Matthew Shepard? Hate happens everywhere. The problem is that crimes, which are born of the worst human emotion, hate, often go unreported. The horrific crime family of sexual assault is similar in the respect that these trespasses often go unreported. The difference with hate crimes, however, is that they can cover several different groups of people, whereas sex crimes generally (but not exclusively) victimize women. For example, in the year 2000, only three hate crimes were reported to local police and were all for a different reason (one was racial, one was religious and one was ethnicity — two of which, if not all, were not choices these people made, but how they were born). We're kidding ourselves if we don't believe that this kind of ignorant hostility happens more than three times a year. It has to be reported, however, for anything to be done about it. Matthew Shepard never had a chance to report it. Tied to a fence (almost in a crucifixion-style pose), the gay University of Wyoming student was pistol whipped to the point of unconsciousness and left for dead. He died a few days later. I don't care who you are or what you might believe, no one deserves to die this way. So what does reporting do? It helps to ensure that this kind of repulsive behavior doesn't repeat itself. When it goes unreported, not only are you sending a signal to the cowardly offenders that they will continue to get away with their hatred, but possibly allowing that same individual to do the same disgusting act to others. Now, I've never been the victim of a hate crime. Being a straight, white male, I realize that asking for people to report these premeditated acts of violence is easier said than done. I realize it can't be easy to be the victim of a hate-motivated offense. I also realize that when we don't report it, we almost tolerate it. By doing that it almost seems that the Matthew Shepards of the world died in vain. Purdue is a pretty diverse university. We have a large population of students from all over the world. We have many students with many different beliefs and intelligent organizations that go to great lengths to ensure equal treatment is befitting to all. They will tell you that hate happens here. They will also tell you that hate kills. There are systems of reporting these hate crimes that can assure victim secrecy and is something for victims to keep in mind. On this campus, you might only hear about how people "hate" school, or "hate" work or "hate" their professors. Well, if this is (and I doubt that it is) the only "hate" we at Purdue have to worry about, then we should consider ourselves blessed. A story of the dangers of hate was told Wednesday night on campus. It was truly beneficial for Judy Shepard to speak at Purdue and put some real emotions with a crime that could happen anywhere. That is, however, unless we take steps to ensure these atrocities are prevented. After all, letting these crimes go unpunished is a crime itself. Keith Thomas is a senior in the School of Liberal Arts. He can be e-mailed at editor@purdueexponent.org. |
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OPINIONS DESK PHONE: Opinions editor:
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You
never think something can happen in your own backyard.
