The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

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Laura Schneider, left, one of three victims of a Halloween beating,
and her mother Barbara react to the sentence of probation and home confinement
handed down to one of nine African-American youths in the beatings of the three
white women, outside court in Long Beach, Calif., Friday, Feb. 2, 2007. (AP
Photo/Reed Saxon)

Several years ago I heard, then candidate George Bush, use the expression “The soft bigotry of low expectations” in describing the behaviour and attitudes of Leftists or more specifically condescending White Liberals (sic). He was referring to the fact that Liberals feel, that by holding Blacks and other so-called minorities to lower standards of behaviour and accountability, they are performing an act of social justice. The sad fact is, their low expectations is nothing short of bigotry dressed up to look like altruism.

I was reminded of this when I heard that Juvenile Court Judge Gibson Lee in the Long Beach case involving the group of Black youth convicted of various crimes (with a Hate Crimes enhancement) emanating from a savage attack on three White females on Halloween night 2006, sentenced all but one of the perpetrators to probation. That “one” was given a sentence of house arrest and will have to undergo racial sensitivity training (whatever that means). Were it not for the actions of several good Samaritans who came to the aide of the victims there is no doubt that the attack would have continued until the victims were dead. Said good Samaritans have subsequently been forced to relocate for their own safety.

While I personally believed that all of these savages should have been charged with Attempted Murder the prosecutors instead charged them with the most serious offences short of Attempted Murder. Additionally anyone who knows me probably knows that I find the idea of Hate Crimes to be foolish beyond imagination. All crimes are crimes of hate. But if we have the laws on the books and the courts are charged with upholding these laws is it unreasonable of me to expect that such brutality deserves a harsher punishment than probation, house arrest and racial sensitivity training? It’s as if Judge Gibson is telling these people (and I use the term lightly in this case) to, “come back when you kill someone”? The basic purpose of a hate crime enhancement is to make the punishment more severe. I shudder to think that there could actually be a lesser sentence than that which was given in this case.

This is certainly not the first time I have seen such a blatant miscarriage of justice but it is certainly one of the most egregious. I have come to expect such asininity out of the minds of juries or the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. But I am perplexed, to say the least, as to why Judge Lee handed down such lenient sentences. Were the races of the victims and perpetrators reversed, I have no doubt that (1) this case would have received more media attention including national attention, (2) the race-hustlers and poverty-pimps (i.e. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Maxine Waters) would have been jockeying for position in front of the cameras on a daily basis to denounce this “hate crime”, and (3) the Judge would have been all too willing to punish the criminals to the fullest extent of his authority.

In brief, the Judge found that these ten defendants committed various acts of aggravated battery upon the persons of three female victims with intent to do great bodily harm and that race was a motivating factor (for nine of the ten) in said assault. Need I say more?


This, my friends, is nothing short of “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”