Domenic Christopher, who was Lindberg's accomplice, was 17 at the time of the murder but was prosecuted as an adult. Jury selection recently began on Lindberg's trial. What bothered me is that they didn't do any investigation before they announced that it wasn't a hate crime. To Su, this case was in line with law enforcement's widespread apathy and reluctance to investigate and even track hate crimes. I tried to explain to them that hate crimes are crimes of passion.
Racism is a salient form of passion.
I didn't know right off that this was a hate crime, I just felt that when something like this happens, you should investigate the possibility of a hate crime. This country is extremely uncomfortable with race. There is also a lack of sensitivity or knowledge of hate crimes and what the signals are and what to look for. We believe the report is useful as we work toward the president's Nov. 10th hate-crimes conference. I'm sure that many of the recommendations of the report will be on the agenda at the conference.