Hate Crime?

can we just hate crime?

pico boulevard in west los angeles recently had five kosher restaurants robbed on august 9th, the sabbath night when the stores were closed. jewishjournal.com the stores incurred theft-cash registers- and property damage-broken windows. the southern california area recently has produced many viral videos depicting numerous mass robberies involving thousands of dollars, property damage and harm to security guards. in the grand scheme, the restaurant robberies were small potatoes.

whenever a jewish business is robbed or vandalized, however, the “hate crime” question arises. outside organizations such as the adl are concerned about the limited matter of whether it was a “hate crime.” historically, there is legitimate concern. jewish establishments have been targets, some en masse; a famous was even named- kristallnacht. the “night of the broken glass” evokes what the streets looked littered full of jewish business’, synagogues’ and homes’ broken glass in germany in 1938. “hate crimes” legitimately can be warning sign of greater thing coming.

with the pico robberies, there was no offensive slurs or swastikas painted. as such, it is not likely that there was a “hate crime”. with this, should the organizations focusing on the crimes’ motivation withdraw interest in the matters? in this instance, the jewish federation of los angeles made a statement concerning there being no indications of antisemitic motivations. [note: the article, as reported by the jewish journal, makes no comment concerning the robberies.] likewise, the adl of los angeles made comment to the jewish journal. likewise, jeffrey abrams the regional director of adl made no comment about robberies.

regardless of the hate, does not the torah and jewish values condemn theft regardless of motivation? theft is a deep societal moral problem regardless of intent is dangerous to society. the ten commandments, a foundational jewish set of laws, does not focus on “limited” motivations. theft, even as a stand alone matter, is to be considered abhorrent.

thus, while these organizations focuse on “hate crimes”, should they not also take some time and effort to express the jewish values expressed within the ten commandments? would it be a crime to condemn theft?

irrespective of motivation, the pico business owners, like all of the southern california business owners who have been victims of crime, experience increased business costs from theft. repairs, business interruption, loss of inventory and loss of money are some of the matters. workers can also be impacted with lost time while the store is repaired and lost tips, raises and bonuses. the city and governmental agencies lose out on sales tax revenues. customers lose out on shopping opportunities. most worrisome, however, is that business owners, due to this problem, may simply close up shop. neighborhoods ienced enough of this problem to the point that they close their stores. with that, consumers suffer with the lack of shops in their neighborhoods.

in sum, we better learn “hate crime” before worrying about “hate crime”.

be well!!

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