A hate crime is when someone hurts or kills you because of an identity characteristic they don't like - when the way they hurt you is motivated by bias.
Jonathon Joss and his family were being targeted with homophobic hate speech for months. This is well documented in the coverage, which tries to seem balanced by posting what the San Antonio PD is saying next to what his husband is saying, but since when do these carry equal weight?
Police departments have historically aided and abetted hate crimes, covering up the motives and sometimes the crimes themselves. If they find you dead and you're visibly queer and they think they can get away with basically throwing you in a dumpster and forgetting all about you, they will. This is why hate crimes legislation in many places was passed over the years.
Hate crimes legislation falls in two main categories. One is making identity-based motives a cause for enhanced prosecution (sort of like "aggravated" assault) and the other is prohibiting the police from ignoring such factors when they are present and mandating they investigate the crime just as they would for anyone else.
The husband's eyewitness account and his description of escalating harassment in recent months (corroborated by police calls and witness statements) is a familiar and recognizable plotline to anyone who faces this kind of abuse in our everyday lives. It was a hate crime, full stop. That's not even debatable.
The SAPD has a history of institutional bias. In 1998 the San Antonio Four were framed as "child predators" by police and prosecutors and wrongfully convicted for a crime they didn't commit. The queer community, divided along respectability lines, failed to show up united. So they served 15 years despite their innocence until one of the victims recanted their testimony.
I would say railroading innocent people and holding them captive for 15 years counts as a hate crime, but I'm no legal scholar (though people who are have made similar critiques). I'm just saying, everyone should be side-eyeing this situation hard, and finding our resilience and unity alongside our grief.
It's not a stretch to conclude that the same institutional bias which weaponized homophobic stereotypes to convict the San Antonio Four is still a factor in a state like Texas, where both hate crime and anti discrimination laws are weak to begin with.
Texas doesn't have an investigation mandate, it only requires police to document bias indicators. So they can write it down and then pretend it means nothing. Note carefully: SAPD’s denial hinges on their claim that his killer's motive wasn’t “primarily” anti-gay — a subjective threshold.
If I had to boil what I'm saying down to a colloquialism or catchphrase, I'd say "their boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes them cheer". When SAPD says this wasn't a hate crime, having coauthored the crimes of the SA4 prosecution, let's just say I'm unpersuaded.
This is why pride season exists - not to drink beer and wave flags and hook up at dance parties in the park - but to demand our right to live free and enjoy the protection of society that our tax dollars pay for, the same as everyone else.
