Twenty-four LGBT or HIV-positive people were murdered in the United States in 2015 because of their sexual orientation, according to an annual survey conducted by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, an LGBT advocacy group. LGBT activists say violence against the community is increasing, particularly against transgender women of color. “But many prosecutors will not take that risk.” “It is important to charge, even if you’re not going to get a few more years, because you’re telling the community you will not tolerate this,” said Jack McDevitt, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, who studies hate crimes. But some criminologists say prosecutors have a duty to pursue hate crimes convictions nevertheless, because bias attacks terrorize entire communities, not just individuals. Prosecutors say proving a hate crime can be difficult and can weaken their overall argument to a jury. And members of the LGBT community said police frequently react with indifference or hostility when hate crimes are reported.
No comprehensive, nationwide programs exist to train police and prosecutors in how to properly investigate hate crimes. And while 30 states have enacted similar laws, criminologists say many of them are poorly written and make convictions difficult. Seven years after landmark federal legislation recognized attacks on LGBT people as hate crimes, no comprehensive nationwide system exists for tracking bias crimes. As the murder cases in Kansas City show, America’s system for punishing bias crimes is filled with limits and inconsistencies. The massacre of 49 people in an Orlando, Florida, gay bar by a self-professed jihadist has put a spotlight on hate crimes against LGBT people. They say there are unresolved questions about whether the three – all of whom were black or Latino – were attacked because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or race. The handling of Greene’s death is one of three killings of LGBT people in Kansas City since 2010 that, advocates say, should have been pursued much more vigorously as hate crimes. Shaw’s lawyer, Paige Bremer, did not respond to a request to comment. She cited Shaw’s use of the prospect of sex to lure Greene to the meeting and his anti-gay slurs on Facebook.
“After sitting at the trial, I don’t think those two people were just there to steal his phone,” said Melissa Brown, a local LBGT advocate. State prosecutors charged Shaw with murder, but no hate crime. They also said a hate crimes murder conviction does not bring additional jail time in Missouri. Local officials said they too would struggle to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anti-gay bias was the motive at the moment of Greene’s murder. Attorney’s office in Kansas City said, “The investigation did not turn out sufficient evidence to support (hate crimes) charges.” The FBI declined to comment on its investigation. Law enforcement officials said they did investigate the killing as a hate crime. Shaw posted anti-homosexual slurs on his Facebook profile nine times in the eight months before the killing. Greene’s family and friends say Shaw and an accomplice lured, robbed and killed Greene because he was gay. But in the view of this city’s LGBT community, law enforcement should have prosecuted the killing as a hate crime. Shaw was convicted last month of involuntary manslaughter and stealing in connection to Greene’s death. Three and a half hours later, police discovered Greene’s body in his idling gold Dodge Stratus, with a single bullet in the right side of his head. 31, 2014, Greene drove to meet the younger man. “You going to come over tonight when you get off of work?” Shaw asked. “Bro, stop in boxing me.”īut hours later, Shaw contacted Greene twice and invited him to get high on marijuana. “I ain’t gay,” Shaw replied, according to court documents. “I just find you attractive and I want to have a sexual encounter with you.”
“I’m not interested in smoking weed with you, Travone,” Greene wrote to the teenager, Travone Shaw, in their first exchange. He reached out to an 18-year-old stranger on Facebook. REUTERS/Mike Blakeĭionte Greene, a 22-year-old black gay male, was looking for a hook-up. Mourners gather under a LGBT pride flag flying at half-mast for a candlelight vigil in remembrance for mass shooting victims in Orlando, from San Diego, California, U.S.