Why Do Christopher Lane and Delbert Belton Matter Less Than Trayvon Martin?

I find it interesting how very little has been said about the recent spate of senseless random murders that have been plaguing this country. The Trayvon Martin death and subsequent trial of George Zimmerman filled my Facebook feed daily. People were outraged. Yes, had Zimmerman done what he had been told-  not to pursue- Trayvon would still be alive. I wish that were the case.  He didn't deserve to die, but he wasn't the 'innocent' that everyone portrayed him to be, and we will never know exactly what went down the night Trayvon and George crossed paths during Zimmerman's neighbourhood watch patrol. But not a peep on Facebook about Australian baseball player Christopher Lane who also didn't deserve to die, and deserves as much, if not more, attention.

In Lane's case, three evil Oklahoman reprobates gunned him down while he was jogging because they were "bored" and just felt like they wanted to kill someone. Sure Christopher Lane was white, and two of his killers- 15-year-old James Edwards Jr. and 16-year-old Chancey Luna- are black, (Michael Jones, 17, who is being charged as an accessory looks like he might be bi-racial), and Edwards had posted "anti-white" statements on his Twitter feed, but this goes beyond race. It also goes beyond the gun control issue. If these kids had wanted to kill someone that night, and they didn't happen to have a gun, they would have found a way to accomplish their goal.  Look at the two Spokane, Washington teens who beat octegenarian World War II vet Delbert "Shorty" Belton so severely he later died. No gun, no knife, just their hands. They too were teens. Kenan Adams-Kinard and Demetrius Glenn, both sixteen, allegedly robbed Belton.

Who knows if race had anything to do with Christopher Lane or Delbert Belton being targeted. Maybe, maybe not. But I do know it has everything to do with raising a generation of conscienceless kids who have absolutely no moral compass. Kids who are influenced by the violent music they listen to and the violent video games they play. Kids who are obviously not taught to respect others.

Why isn't Barack Obama as outraged about these random killings as he was about Trayvon Martin's death?  Why isn't Jesse Jackson weighing in on the issue? Why do none of my Facebook 'friends'  seem to care about Belton and Lane? 

We need to address the issue of teen violence.

FBI 2011 Hate Crime Report: 63.2% Of Religious Bias Crimes Anti-Jewish

The FBI has released its 2011 Hate Crime report, and sadly racial bias still accounts for the bulk of hate crimes perpetrated against individuals.

Of 6,216 'single-bias hate crime incidents' that were reported in 2011 (which includes property), 46.9% were racially motivated, followed by 20.8% for sexual orientation, 19.8 % for religious bias, 11.6% for national origin or ethnicity bias, and lastly .09% for disability bias.

From the FBI's press release:

Hate Crime Statistics, 2011 includes the following information:

• There were 6,216 single-bias incidents, of which 46.9 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20.8 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, 19.8 percent were motivated by a religious bias, and 11.6 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.9 percent of single-bias incidents.
• Of the 4,623 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2011, intimidation accounted for 45.6 percent, simple assaults for 34.5 percent, and aggravated assaults for 19.4 percent. Four murders and seven forcible rapes were reported as hate crimes.
• There were 2,611 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (81.4 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 18.6 percent of crimes against property.
• Fifty-nine percent of the 5,731 known offenders were white; 20.9 percent were black. The race was unknown for 10.8 percent, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders.
• Most hate crime incidents (32.0 percent) occurred in or near homes. Eighteen percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 9.3 percent happened at schools or colleges; 5.9 percent in parking lots or garages; and 4.4 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The location was considered other (undesignated) or unknown for 11.3 percent of hate crime incidents. The remaining 19.1 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified or multiple locations.

As for the victims of religious bias, interesting to note that for all the cries of 'Islamophobia', hate crimes against Muslims account for only 12.5 % of all crimes.  Anti-Jewish bias still trumps all other religious bias crimes with a whopping 63.2%, followed (surprisingly) by 5.7% anti-Catholic crimes, with smaller percentages for other religious groups, including atheists and agnostics.

It's sad that we still live in a country where crimes against people that are perceived to be 'different' continues to occur. We're better than that.