"Hundreds" of Hate Crimes Under the Radar, Post-Obama Victory?

Am I the only one who has missed news of this? The AP:

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of incidents, including vandalism, threats and at least one physical attack. There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

In Snellville, Ga., Denene Millner said that a day after the election, a boy on a school bus told her 9-year-old daughter that he hoped "Obama gets assassinated." That night, Millner said, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door.

"It definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with," said Millner, who is black. "And makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."

Potok, who is white, said he thinks there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

The rest of the article has more specifics, if you're interested. I know no one actually believed that America would transform into a post-racial paradise because of Obama's victory, but did anyone think we'd see a wave of hate crimes? If that is, in fact, what this is?

Comments

'Potok, who is white, said he thinks there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."'

My great-grandfather was a Cherokee Indian. Who stole what from who? Just when you thought ignorance was on the decline . . .

Posted by: coleman on 11/17/08 at 2:20 PM Respond

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Albert Einstein

Posted by: anon on 11/17/08 at 2:31 PM Respond

I ascribe a lot of Hate Crimes and social turmoil to the fact that the U.S. has become a permissive if not lawless Society-the fabric that once held the Nation together has been seriously torn and may soon be ripped asunder. Many will say that we live in a better, more easygoing America, where literally anything goes, rules of behavior are to be mocked and we want to do anything and everything that there were formerly rules against doing at all. The problem with that is simply this-How can America be the Moral leader of the Free World, the example for other Nations to follow if we have no morals or Justice of our own?

Posted by: Mr. Independent on 11/17/08 at 2:46 PM Respond

I'm kinda surprised you didn't see this coming. When an animal is cornered, what does it do? In sports, is it the winning team that tends to start the fights? If nobody assassinated BushCo, chances are good Obama's going to make it, but regardless, before the election I heard plenty of folks worried Obama wouldn't survive 4 years. These cornered animals, these sore losers, this supposedly "large subset of white people" going on a rampage - this is the death rattle of a bass ackwards mindset that our grandkids will think as primitive as a flat Earth.

Posted by: bacon on 11/17/08 at 2:57 PM Respond

Just wait until Inauguration Day.....

Posted by: Larry on 11/17/08 at 2:57 PM Respond

A brilliant quote! Hadn't heard it before and appreciate your sharing it.

Posted by: BabsW on 11/17/08 at 6:38 PM Respond

I saw it coming when some were showing kittenish concern during the campaign through comments like, "I wish Obama well, but I worry he'll be assassinated." I was initially angered by this idea that somehow any black person of prominence inherits the likelihood of King's murder. Then it occurred to me that, whether or not Obama would be targeted, I could easily see some bigots attacking more vulnerable, more easily targeted blacks. I guess I was right, not that it feels good.

Posted by: Paul Miller on 11/17/08 at 7:13 PM Respond

"...a wave of hate crimes? If that is, in fact, what this is?"

A couple dozen anecdotals (of "incidents" not hate crimes; a nation of 300 million. A wave!!!1!1!!!

Potok's hair is on fire, I predict a tsunami of SLPC funding solicitations.

Posted by: tao9 on 11/17/08 at 7:41 PM Respond

George W. Bush had better stop committing hate crimes.

Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-did-you-think-of-that-naacp-anti.html

Posted by: Andrew Yu-Jen Wang on 12/14/08 at 3:41 PM Respond