ONE LAW FOR ALL
April 26, 2005 -- Racial tensions often turn on the phrase "double standard": Is one set of criteria being used for members of one race and a different set for those of another?
That question is at the heart of a particularly vile incident that occurred last month in Marine Park, Brooklyn.
The basic facts are pretty clear: Six white Catholic schoolgirls were playing basketball on a public court.
Several black girls approached and demanded use of the court. After being rebuffed, the black girls came back several times — eventually assaulting the white girls while screaming "white crackers" and "black power."
Two victims ended up in the hospital.
Now, meet the double standard.
Again, all this happened nearly a month ago — and is only now coming to light. But imagine a role reversal: Two dozen white girls attacking a half-dozen black girls.
Al Sharpton would have dislocated a hip in his haste to get to the scene.
And the police almost certainly would have filed hate-crime charges.
Instead, the perpetrators were charged only with simple assault; city lawyers then stepped in and re-filed charges under New York's hate-crime law.
We're not great fans of that statute. Crimes of violence should be adjudicated on the basis of physical facts, not a state of mind.
But the law is the law; if it's going to be applied at all, it has to apply equally.
And when it is not applied in egregious cases such as this one, no one should be surprised when the aggrieved parties, their friends and their neighbors become resentful.
The failure to charge the perpetrators with a hate crime chummed up all manner of racist invective — which, while ugly and wholly unacceptable, is hardly surprising.
If a group believes — with some justification — that it is not getting a fair shake, expect decorum and civility to go out the window.
Or, as someone once said, "No justice; no peace."
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