Friday, November 25, 2005

Alberta Home of Hate Crimes

The right wing loves to wave the red flag of Law and Order whenever they find themselves challenged on social issues. The Federal Conservatives, the majority from Alberta, and their provincial counterparts, along with the right wing media pundits like Dave Rutherford, love to talk the talk about getting tough on crime. Especially violent crime.


According to a new StatsCan study the motivation behind much violent crime is sexism, racism, and homophobia. Funny that...its the right wing that opposes immigration and aboriginal rights thus feeding racism, they oppose womens rights and of course gay marriage and gay rights. The social intolerace of the right is the source of the social acceptance of violence against women, gays and people of colour.


It is no surprize that in macho born again Alberta these crimes are the highest. After all we have a Premier who attacks the poor, homeless and disabled, who opposed gay marriage, and opposes pubic daycare. His government fails to fully fund womens shelters leaving victims of domestic violence with no place to call home.

The next time some right wing whiner starts beaking off about getting tough on crime not so gently remind them that their ideology of intolerance is criminal. After all they should accept their 'responsibility' for promoting violence against the people they denounce.

Simply put all right wing blather is hate speech looking for victims. Just ask Hitler.

StatsCan Report on Crime in Canada
More often, hate was cited as the motive for violent crimes compared with other offences.
Statscan said about 8 per cent of violent crimes were linked to hate. By comparison, about 2 per cent of household offences were thought to be hate crimes. “The most common motive was the individual's race or ethnicity, which represented two-thirds of hate-motivated incidents,” Statscan said. “About one-quarter of those incidents were believed to be motivated by the victim's sex, followed by religion and sexual orientation. These results were similar to those in 1999.” By region, residents of the Western provinces generally reported higher rates of victimization, with the exception of Nova Scotia. That province's rate of 157 incidents for every 1,000 residents was among the highest for violent crime, ranking near Alberta's rate of 160 incidents for every 1,000 people. Quebec residents reported the fewest incidents of violent crime. The risk of falling victim to a violent crime was higher among people aged 15 to 24, among city dwellers and among those out after dark. The report also suggested that incidents of hate-motivated crimes remained stable, accounting for about 4 per cent of all self-reported occurrences. The agency said that, among the 1 per cent of those identifying themselves as gay or lesbian, the rate of violent victimization was 2.5 times that reported by straight people.

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