Google Alerts & Hate Crimes
I have Google set up so that it sends me an email everytime there's a news report on the web of a hate crime. It makes for an interesting flow of work through the day, as the new message icon glows into appearance on the lower right corner of the desktop, "Google Alert: Hate Crime" reads the subject line of each email. Then, in the text of each email is the headline of the story, and a link to the report. Just now, there's a headline from the middle of the country that "Grade Schoolers Could be Charged with Hate Crime":
"Danville (KY) police are trying to determine whether an act of vandalism was just childish or racist. Police say five kids ranging in ages 8 to 11 vandalized this home by using soap to write the symbol for anarchy and a derogatory remark about the nine year old boy who lives there.
A few weeks earlier a note containing racial remarks and threats was posted on the front door. Police are still investigating the case and no charges have been filed. If it's determined this was a hate crime, the case could be handed over to federal authorities.
The mother of one of the accused children says her son admits to the vandalism but at nine years old he doesn't realize there were any racial overtones in what he wrote. Lisa Hardin says her son and several other neighborhood children have never gotten along with Ruby Jackson's nine-year-old son.
Jackson says the letter mentioned the KKK and "they were going to take my son to the court yard and hang him."
Jackson says she only reported the crime to let the kids know their actions have consequences.
Leaving aside for the moment the false dichotomy set up here between "just childish" or "racist", what strikes me is that I'm being "alerted" to this by Google. It makes me wonder if there are ways to mobilize people against hate crimes via Google. Something to ponder.
"Danville (KY) police are trying to determine whether an act of vandalism was just childish or racist. Police say five kids ranging in ages 8 to 11 vandalized this home by using soap to write the symbol for anarchy and a derogatory remark about the nine year old boy who lives there.
A few weeks earlier a note containing racial remarks and threats was posted on the front door. Police are still investigating the case and no charges have been filed. If it's determined this was a hate crime, the case could be handed over to federal authorities.
The mother of one of the accused children says her son admits to the vandalism but at nine years old he doesn't realize there were any racial overtones in what he wrote. Lisa Hardin says her son and several other neighborhood children have never gotten along with Ruby Jackson's nine-year-old son.
Jackson says the letter mentioned the KKK and "they were going to take my son to the court yard and hang him."
Jackson says she only reported the crime to let the kids know their actions have consequences.
Leaving aside for the moment the false dichotomy set up here between "just childish" or "racist", what strikes me is that I'm being "alerted" to this by Google. It makes me wonder if there are ways to mobilize people against hate crimes via Google. Something to ponder.
posted by Jessie Daniels at
2:26 PM
