By: Aster

I think I get some of this? Like the average bigot isn’t going out to commit murder about it, but Joe or Jane Hate Crime isn’t formed in a vacuum – a person who’s already violent and prejudiced is going to have all of that compounded by living in a society where people are constantly working themselves up over how the minority group is scary and dangerous and subhuman and something should be done about it. And after a hate crime happens, people use it to redefine what counts as unacceptable levels of bigotry and exorcise their uncomfortable feelings about their own bias in a way that is not particularly productive – “Those murderers are ontologically evil and should probably get the chair! But also, we definitely need another article about detransitioners that doesn’t talk to a single person who realized they were doing it for kinda fucked up ex-gay reasons, which is fine because it’s not physically violent and definitely has no negative consequences.” Caring more about how to prevent the environments that create hate crimes than what to do with the people who’ve committed them is absolutely a good idea, and will have more of an affect on potential victims.

I feel like it’s in bad taste to specifically try to have a moment about prison abolition right now, though, unless the victim was known to have strong feelings about that herself.