Hate Crimes

Kinison's mother insists her son was not a racist. He was raised to respect all people. People who pick fights are not respecting anyone. They are bullies. His friends say he was not a racist. He just used racial slurs to pick fights. Anyone who thinks it is okay to pick fights are not great character witnesses. Oh, it is okay to pick a fight with tourists of a much smaller size by taunting them with racial slurs, threats of slitting their throat and spitting on them? Just some Saturday night fun, is all, those that see Kinison as the victim, not the perpetrator of his own death.

Neiwert states that Kinison "fit the profile" or "These traits fit the psychological profile of a typical recruit for white-supremacists." They become "quite adept at hiding" the "new ideas they have cultivated." I find this hard to believe. The Christian Bible talks about the "cornerstone" or foundation laid in childhood which affects the adult the child becomes.
As a child, Kinison lived in Hawaii, where his father was stationed. He was the minority during those formative years. From what I have read natives to Hawaii have a bit of prejudice and bigotry towards "whites" or people from the "main land". That does not mean that Kinison was subjected to any bigotry; his mother claims he had a lot of multi-cultured friends in those days. Having seen many babies grow into adulthood, I do not understand how a young adult could make a complete transformation, become a white supremacist, if the seeds of superiority and hatred towards other nationalities was not evident in childhood. Most often Children Live What They Learn.

His parents divorce bothered him, as it does most children. Not much is said in "Death On The Fourth of July" about his father and personal life. Military fathers are often overly strict disciplinarians. They demand perfection and often use physical violence to discipline the children for minor infractions. And the wives. The parents divorced for some reason. Could domestic violence be the reason? That would explain Kinison's need to pick on people smaller than himself, bullies never pick on people they think can beat them, cowards they pick weaker people as victims. Kinison's need to fight must have developed somewhere, most likely in his home.

The "fight or flight reaction" is mentioned in the book. Author says victims of hate or bias based crimes "...experience post-trauma stress syndromes similar to those experienced by rape victims, because the sense of violation can be so profound. The result is a commingling of shame, fear and rage." If the "crisis reactions" are not dealt with, "they become worse." Or in my mind, lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Dr. Gary Connor is quoted as saying that a person facing a threat such as with Kinison, has a sense of "...terror, chaos, loss of control. It's like what happens in a war."

I read somewhere "Out of control by you, means in control by them." Something to do with the alcoholic's button-pushing. They feel they are powerless in life and over their addiction, and get a real sense of satisfaction when they can drive a spouse (or strangers in a parking lot or cops) to lose control. Makes them feel powerful.

Connor says the fight or flight reaction is characterized by tunnel-vision, limited hearing, faster heart-beat, hand-eye coordination worsens and thinking deteriorates rapidly. Or, when threatened with physical harm the mind goes blank and one is out of control, the body reacting to the stress. One either takes flight or one fights. That is the condition Hong was in when he stole the paring knife.

Neiwert says "While most American whites tend to shun that chapter of their history, the litany of horrifying murders produced during the lynchings era lingers, generations later, as a well-spring of deep distrust and fear among minorities, and blacks particularly."

I am considered white and a citizen of the U.S.A. Neiwert said "most" so that discludes me from his statement. I am quite prejudiced against people who wave the Confederate flag. Words like violent, crazy and ignorant redneck come to mind. I tense around such people with a "deep distrust and fear" of them. I do know white Americans who shun that chapter of history, they are still at it today, is why, White Makes Right. Yeah, they may not be able to get away with lynchings anymore but the attitudes are still the same. Those white Americans are not shunning their history, they cling to it with pride and a desire for a new American Revolution.

I take exception, though to the words "their history". I am a white American who does not shun that part of U.S. history. It is not my history. Like many U.S. citizens I am a first generation American on the paternal side and second generation on the maternal. My grandparents were not U.S. citizens in those early 1900 days. I am nitpicking here. I would agree with "most" but a better sentence would be "Many American whites shunt that chapter of U.S. history." People like my grandparents could be condemned for tolerating the horror of lynchings, but they were dealing with being foreigners in a strange land, poor people living through the great Depression and wars.

So what becomes of Hong? How should he be punished for taking a life? His intention was never to murder Kinison. Kinison was threatening to slit the young men's throats. Despite what the prosecuting attorney said about not bringing knives to fistfights, in the young man's mind, Kinison invited him to a knife fight: I am gonna kill you by slitting your throat. Ha, ha. Ho, ho, ho. Hong had no way of knowing if Kinison had a knife and intended to use it.

The law is that one is in the wrong if they terrorize others, even if they do not intend to carry out the threat. If the person's words and actions cause fear for their safety, any citizen can press charges against them. The reaction, not the intent is important in this type of situation. Kinison may not have been a racist, but he was most definitely guilty of terrorism. As far as I can tell, Hong simply acted in self-defense with no malicious forethought and definitely had no intention of committing manslaughter of which he was charged.