When allegations surfaced that a group of six white nationalist skinheads shouted racial slurs and assaulted a Black man last month in an Avalon borough dive bar north of Pittsburgh, police charged each member of the group with “ethnic intimidation” — the Pennsylvania statute designed to prosecute hate crimes.
The statute defines such an offense as involving “malicious intention toward the race, color, religion or national origin of another individual or group of individuals,” but a review of ethnic intimidation cases in Allegheny County shows that they almost never hold up in court.
PublicSource has identified 49 criminal cases in which police filed ethnic intimidation charges against defendants in Allegheny County in 2016 and 2017.
Only one resulted in a hate crime prosecution: In June 2017, Ian “Toxxik Fox” Worn, while attending Anthrocon, the annual furry convention in downtown Pittsburgh, allegedly screamed racial slurs at a Black Allegheny County Sheriff’s deputy. The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office charged Worn with three counts of ethnic intimidation. Worn pleaded guilty to the charges and is now serving out an 18-month probationary sentence in California, where she had outstanding warrants.
Forty-seven of Allegheny County’s remaining ethnic intimidation cases in 2016 and 2017 were either dismissed or never pursued by prosecutors. One case, that of Caleb Pemberton, is yet unresolved, and set for a non-jury trial in October. After being stopped and jailed under suspicion of driving under the influence, Pemberton allegedly referred to a Black, female Pittsburgh police officer using racial slurs.
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https://www.publicsource.org/out-of-49-hate-crime-charges-in-allegheny-county-only-one-led-to-a-conviction-why/
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