Woman charged with hate crime in scarf-pulling incident

Do you think these charges are appropriate, or excessive? This isn't a current story. It's from '09, but it was a debate many in this area of Chicagoland have been having, and it's been discussed by various columnists and such as well. Interested in peoples' thoughts here.

http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11/woman-accused-of-hate-crime-against-muslim.html


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Woman charged with hate crime in scarf-pulling incident
November 18, 2009 8:10 PM | 77 Comments | UPDATED STORY

A suburban Chicago woman has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly yanking the head scarf of a Muslim woman in Tinley Park two days after the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas.

Valerie Kenney, 54, a bank teller from Tinley Park, appeared at the Bridgeview Courthouse today and was released on $5,000 bail. If convicted of the felony, Kenney faces up to 3 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. She is due back in court Dec. 3.

"I think (a charge of hate crime) sends the appropriate message that these kinds of race-based lash-outs are unacceptable," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Every time something like (the Fort Hood shootings) happens, the Muslim community prepares for a backlash."

Amal Abusumayah, 28, told police she was shopping at a Tinley Park grocery store Nov. 7 when a middle-age woman passed her in the aisle and made a loud reference to the killings at Fort Hood.

"She said, 'The man that did that shooting in Texas was from the Middle East,' in a really loud and angry voice," Abusumayah told the Tribune last week. Minutes later, while Abusumayah was paying for her groceries at a self-checkout, the woman approached her from behind and tugged hard on her blue and beige head scarf, she said.

"I turned around and looked at her, and she walked out of the store," she said. "My scarf didn't come off because it was on very tight, but my head was tugged back."

Abusumayah, who was born in the United States and raised in Berwyn by Palestinian immigrants, followed the woman into the lot and called police, who arrested Kenney within minutes.

Kenney declined to comment after the court appearance.

Reached at home Wednesday, Abusumayah also declined to comment, saying she did not want to provoke "a backlash."

She said last week that the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, where 13 soldiers were killed, were "very upsetting and very sad to me -- as Muslims and Arabs we do not tolerate these kinds of actions."

The scarf incident was the first of two apparent race-related attacks in Tinley Park in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings, Police Chief Michael O'Connell said. On Nov. 8, a Muslim family found racist graffiti on the front of their home, O'Connell said. The person rang the family's doorbell but ran off, O'Connell said.

He said hate crimes such as the one Kenney is charged with "attack the dignity of people because of their religious beliefs, race or sexual orientation, and we don't tolerate that here."

--Kim Janssen and Joel Hood

This was definitely a disgusting display of a hate crime, no question about it. And the woman, Valerie Kenney, should be punished harshly. But three years in prison for yanking someone's scarf? That seems extreme. I would make her pay thousands of dollars and a short time in prison, maybe six months to a year (after all, it is an assault.)

I feel bad for the Muslim and Arab communities. Because of a few screwballs on 9/11, they're all getting blamed and discriminated against. It just shows you how low this country really is.

MandyPerfumeGirl wrote:This was definitely a disgusting display of a hate crime, no question about it. And the woman, Valerie Kenney, should be punished harshly. But three years in prison for yanking someone's scarf? That seems extreme. I would make her pay thousands of dollars and a short time in prison, maybe six months to a year (after all, it is an assault.)

I feel bad for the Muslim and Arab communities. Because of a few screwballs on 9/11, they're all getting blamed and discriminated against. It just shows you how low this country really is.

This should really not be put off as a minor incident. This nut case woman could have just as easily been a hater with a gun. Sort of like the Sikh that was killed after 9-11 by some ignorant American "Patriot" with a gun. He not only had no idea that Sikhs are not Muslims, but that Sikhs fought the Muslim invaders in India.

The woman was wrong but three years for tugging a scarf is excessive.

Yeah, three years is a lot. But, her hateful intent is pretty clear. It is just terrible that things like this happen.

Okay, I get that her motivation is hate here, but really, thousands of dollars in fines and 3 years for pulling on a scarf? The woman wasn't even assaulted really...if I was wearing a headscarf and somebody yanked on it, my response would probably be to hit them, not file a complaint or press charges on them. Maybe it's just me, but I think the whole thing is pretty stupid.

Definitely a hate crime and I could see a lighter jail sentence, as well as court ordered therapy to deal with her racism but I'm not sure about three years. I mean - a couple of years ago, a drunk women ran down and killed a little girl and injured the little girl's aunt. Her sentence? 2 1/2 years for killing that little girl. In comparison, 3 years for a racially motivated crime? It just shows how messed up the system is, I guess. This woman should definitely have to get counselling but in a case like this, I think that restitution would be better than a 3 year jail term - 6 months in jail and restitution.

It is a hate crime, and it's definitely battery. Is it deserving of three years imprisonment, though? No. In this case, I would have given the woman probation, community service, and a very stiff fine.

It's cases like these that give hate crimes a bad name and make them look like a joke.

It was a hate crime. Look at the derogatory remarks she made to this woman. What happened at Fort Hood was not the woman's fault. That said, no she shouldn't have gotten three years in prison for it. If convicted, she should have been given a suspended sentence, a hefty fine, a thousand hours of community service and this should be a permanent splotch on her record.

^^^^Everything can be spun into a hate crime.

3 years for pulling on a woman's headscarf, people don't even do that much time for rape, and between the two, yes what happened here was bad, but I'm still saying rape is the worse crime of the two and more deserving of a harsh and lengthy sentence.

Make no mistake that it WAS a hate crime but that punishment wouldn't have fit the crime. I would have been ok to see her get probation & a mean fined like others have said.

It was definitely a hate crime. There is such a huge disparity when giving out sentences, I have no comment on the time she may receive.

And people wonder why hate crimes are losing cred.

I have to agree. It's getting very carried away here...had this woman not made the remarks she did and just pulled on the woman's scarf, would that still be a hate crime since the scarf is a cultural thing, or would it just be assault, IF that?