In today’s society, crime in the United States is no longer one dimension. Although the number of violent crimes in the United States has dropped within the last 40 years according to the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice reports, I believe that there are many factors that would determine the outcome of the fate of perpetrator. Most crimes are still committed nowadays because of one or two causes, which could be class, race, age, or gender related. This paper will summarize a crime story, and tell how the race affects the media, and the public perception of the crime.
A 20 year-old active duty solider named, Tevin Geike, was stabbed to death last Sunday morning, October 6, by his fellow Army men, who are African-American, while walking at a block in Lakewood. The victim, who at the time was with some companions, an all-white male, were on their way back from the club at 2 a.m., to the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, after celebrating his upcoming discharge from the military. A vehicle carrying the accused suddenly stopped by, and the men in the car yelled at the victim and his friends, and began name calling and hurling racial slurs such as “cracker”. When Geike retaliated by shouting back at the group in the car, that’s when trouble started. The men in the car turned around their vehicle towards where the victim and his friends were walking, got out of the car, and after a verbal confrontation, one of them stabbed the 20-year old Army soldier. Geike’s fellow soldiers saw him fall to the ground as the suspects sped away. The victim was bleeding from a stab wound and died at the scene. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/07/justice/washington-soldier-killed/index.html
There is no doubt that the senseless killing of the Army solider in the story above can easily be classified as a hate crime, because all the elements for a
