Have The Most Brutal Hate Crimes Sparked Any Change For The Better? – Oxygen

Hate crimes are intended to divide. They target individuals to sow fear among certain communities, be they LGBTQ people, Black Americans or immigrants. The last three years have seen an unprecedented rise in hate groups and extremists, as they are emboldened to make their messages more public and plan violent attacks, using the relative anonymity of social media.

But hate crimes can also have the unintended consequence of bringing people together to affect change.

InOxygensnew special, Uncovered: KilledByHate,the harrowing stories of some of the worst hate crimes in our countrys recent memory will be told, graphically and powerfully. But viewers will also meet survivors, including family members, intended victims and advocates who rose above the hate and worked to further protect marginalized communities.

1998: Ground ZeroForFederal Hate Crime Law

Violence, hatred and tribalism are in the DNA ofour countrys history with lynchings, church bombings and the brutalization of the gay community being recent examples. However, the concept of a hate crime as something that can be categorized and legislated against only came out from journalistic language and congressional debate into the public consciousness in one crucial year.

On June 7, 1998,James Byrd, Jr.,a49-year-old black man, was walking down a road in Jasper, Texas, when he was offered a ride by three white men. Byrd accepted, but was brought to a remote, wooded area and attacked,according toCNN. Hewas beaten. His face was spray-painted and his attackers John William King, 23, Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, and Shawn Allen Berry, 23 even defecated on him,according toInside Edition.

And Byrdsordeal was only beginning. The three men two of whom wereopen white supremacists tied him by his ankles to their pickup truck with a 24-foot length of logging chain and dragged him for three and a half miles, until his body literally came apart.

Byrd was alive for much of the dragging,detailedincourt documents, until the moment his head and right arm were torn off when his body hit a culvert. A forensic pathologist testified at trial that Byrds cheek, buttocks and toes were ground down to the bone injuries he wasalmost certainly alive and conscious for, given evidence that he was trying to hold his head above the ground throughout the ordeal.

All three were convicted after five days of testimony and two and a half hours of jury deliberations, according toThe Washington Post. Brewer and King who had beenmost exalted cyclops of the Confederate Knights of America received the death penalty. Berry was sentenced to life.

Months later, on Oct. 6, Matthew Shepard, 22, was approached in a Laramie, Wyoming, bar by two men who thought the5-foot-2gay student would be an easy target for robbery.Aaron McKinney and Russell Hendersonlured Shepard into their truck and drove him out to a remote area at the edge of town, according to theBBC.

They pistol-whipped Shepard inside the truckwith a .357 Magnum, then tiedhim to a log fence with a clothesline and continued pistol-whipping him before leaving him bleeding, in near-freezing temperatures, where hed hang for 18 hours until a passing bicyclist found him. Albany County Sheriff Dave OMalley would later compare Shepards injuries to those hed seen in high-speed car crashes.

Shepard would die six days later of his injuries, with his parents, Judy and Dennis by his side. Henderson and McKinney were convicted of first-degree murder, and both got two consecutive life sentences, according toCNN. They would not face hate crime charges because nothing in Wyoming or federal law covered those offenses. The public outrage over Shepards torture and murder, however, quickly spread nationally, and quickly got the attention ofpresident Bill Clinton, who would condemn it andpress for new hate crime legislation.

Still, the road to progress would be long.

Not until 2009, two presidential administrations later, would the federal hate crimes bill bearing both Shepard and Byrds names be signed intolaw. President Barack Obama, joined by James Byrdssisters,LouvonHarris and Betty ByrdBoatner, and Matthew Shepards mom, Judy, signed the Matthew Shepard James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act on Oct. 28, 2009, according to theNew York Times.

This is the culmination of a struggle that has lasted more than a decade, Obamasaid. Time and again, we faced opposition. Time and again, the measurewasdefeated or delayed. Time and again, weve been reminded of the difficulty of building a nation in which were all free to live and love as we see fit.

Thebilladded a persons sexuality, gender identity or disability under the federal definition of hatecrime, andgave federal prosecutors greater ability to go after alleged hate crimes that local authorities did not.

The bill facedpastRepublican opposition including a threat by President George W. Bush to veto it and thus was tacked onto a defense bill, according toFox News.

Judy and Dennis Shepard maintained this year that the country still has miles to go toward protecting the LGBTQ community.LGBTQ advocacy groupHuman Rights Campaignsaid that so far in 2019, 19 transgender people have been killed, and that more stringent hate crime reporting is needed, as well as local laws to protect vulnerable communities where the feds may fail.

The HeatherHeyerFoundation andBlazin It Forward

Two notorious recent hate crimes claiming young, promising lives have resulted in families springing into action to combat hate.

Whena neo-Nazi rammed his car into a crowd of people protesting a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, 2017, 35 people were injured, according to theWashington Post, and activist HeatherHeyer, 32, lost her life.

James Fields Jr., 21, was convicted of first-degree murder in state court in December 2018, according to the Post. This spring, he was also convicted of federal hate crime charges, and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Heyerwas remembered as a passionate activist who stood up against any type of discrimination,theNew York Timesreported.She headed to Charlottesville that Saturday out of a sense of duty to protest the white supremacists and neo-Nazis gathering under the pretense of protesting the planned removal of ahistorical statue.

Her last Facebookpostread, If youre not outraged, youre not paying attention.

Since her death,Heyersmother, Susan Bro,has started anon-profit foundationto provide scholarships for people who want to make positive, nonviolent social change, focusing on the fields of law, social work, social justice and education.

I think thats what we have with Heathers legacy, is a call to action, Brotold NPRin August 2018.

In 2018, the foundation awarded scholarships to three students, including one graduating from Charlottesville High School.

The second hate crime occurred on Jan. 10, 2018, when University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein, 19, was found half-buried in a shallow grave in Orange County, California, according toNBC News. His family and friends had been searching for him for eight days when his body was found stabbed multiple times.

It only took two days for authorities to make an arrest: Former high school classmate Samuel Woodward, 20, was charged, and law enforcement suspected the murder of the gay, Jewish man was a hate crime. In August 2018, prosecutors added a hate crime enhancement to the murder charge, based on evidence they found on Woodwards laptop and cellphone,theDaily Pennsylvanianreported.

Woodward told investigators at the time that Bernstein had tried to kiss him,theOrange County Registerreported.He was also later linked to the violent neo-Nazi groupAtomwaffen, according toFrontline-ProPublicareporting.

Woodwards case is still in the pre-trial phase, according to Frontline-ProPublica.He has pleaded notguilty, anddenies the charges.

Bernsteins family, however, haspushed through his death and started a nationwide, social media-based movement promoting random acts of kindness as an antidote to the hate that may have taken his life. Jeanne and Gideon Bernstein started a hashtag #BlazeItForward but also spearheaded collection efforts to feed the hungry,according to theLos Angeles Times.

Blaze was a really special human being, Jeanne said at a food bank event in January. His story resonates with people. [Volunteers] are also making an announcement that theyre saying no to intolerance, and theyre making a positive change.

The BlazeItForward Facebook page today has more than 26,000 members, sharing stories of people helping others, thanking others for help and reaching out for help with volunteer efforts. Its stated goal is to make the world a better place with one intentional kind act at a time.

On Oct. 16, the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County shared on the page thatit waslaunching theBlaze Bernstein School of Culinary Arts, as a tribute to Bernsteins love of cooking.

For more on the brutal murders of Matthew Shepard, James Byrd, Blaze Bernstein and HeatherHeyer as well as the 2017 Portland train attack dont miss Uncovered: KilledByHate, onOxygen, where viewers will meet the families, survivors and advocates fighting the scourge of hate crimes to this day. KilledByHate airsSundayat7/6c.

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Have The Most Brutal Hate Crimes Sparked Any Change For The Better? - Oxygen