Hate-motivated
crimes, or hate crimes have gained an extraordinary amount of publicity in
recent years; however, these crimes are not reported as often as assumed, and
they are rarely ever prosecuted.
Recent examples of such crimes are the cases of Treyvon Martin, Michael
Brown, Tyler Clementi, Christopher Lane, and Eric Gardner. Even more recently was the North Carolina
Chapel Hill shootings that stole the lives of Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad,
and her sister, Razan Mohammad. Self-proclaimed
Atheist, Craig Stephen Hicks, shot the three Muslim students in their home execution-style
in what mass media reported as “a dispute between neighbors” fueled by rage over a parking
spot. However, family members and supporters all over the world know what it really was: a hate crime.
