Lawsuits Help Keep Us Safe—From Hate!

The news was loaded with stories today about how people are putting the civil justice system to use—to fight hate crimes!  That’s right civil justice fans, often lost in all the “tort” talk is the way lawsuits help compliment the criminal justice system in holding accountable those engaged in bigotry and violence.  See CJ&D’s report on this – the section called “Hate Crimes”

Case in point: a Manhattan-based group, Hispanics Across America, is considering a wrongful death lawsuit against the parents of seven teenagers charged in the allegedly race-based, fatal stabbing of an Ecuadorian immigrant.

"Parents that teach their children hate are just as responsible as the kids who commit the crimes," said Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America. Feeding and sheltering children isn't enough, Mateo said. Children need to be taught values.

"We cannot harbor terrorists in our homes," he said.

Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center is hoping to put one of the nation’s largest Ku Klux Klan groups out of business by suing them for their involvement in the beating of a Latino teenager. 

“The goal is to deter future violence,” said Booth Gunter, a spokesman of the law center.

Sounds good to us!

Comments

[Laura Cozine]

A brilliant attorney this Kevin George. What a good exercise for the brain that this case presented.