Another Jewish Organization Attacked

Last week we had the shooting at the Jewish Federation in Seattle by an Arab man unhappy with Isreal, and now this in Baltimore:

Baltimore police are investigating a firebombing at Baltimore Hebrew University after an employee reported a loud noise and then a fire at the base of a side door of a building in the 5800 block of Park Heights Ave. in Northwest Baltimore.

The incident occurred about 2:45 p.m. yesterday. Agent Donny Moses, a city police spokesman, said the female employee alerted maintenance workers who came and extinguished the small fire and then alerted authorities.

Moses said detectives determined the fire was started by an incendiary device, such as a Molotov cocktail, thrown at a steel door, causing no damage. It is being investigated by the department's arson unit, but has not yet been classified as a hate crime.

And in one of the more amazing statements, police classified the arson attempt this way:

"At this point, there's nothing that would indicate that this is a hate crime," Moses said. "They have problems with juveniles in that area."

I don't like hate crime laws anyway, and this is a classic example why (I've written previously about it here). "Hate" is in the eye of the beholder and although this is likely to be found to be a "hate" crime, the fact that there's a question at this point just further demonstrates the folly of trying to assign "extra credit", if you will, to a person's thoughts, rather than simply judging their actions.

Of course, had this been a gay organization that was attacked, the officer wouldn't have dared suggest that it was not a hate crime.