Virginia Attorney General seemingly unconcerned with violent hate crimes

On Tuesday, Fox News’ Bill O-Reilly reported that Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has decided not to get involved in the investigation of two Virginia-Pilot reporters who were beaten by a mob of black teenagers in Norfolk, last month.

Cuccinelli will not even ask that the 911 tapes be released, according to O’Reilly.

While the Fox News host expressed surprise at the decision and found Cucinelli’s lack of interest in the case “troubling,” it is typical for the Commonwealth’s current Attorney General.

The following case serves as an example of Cucinelli’s disinterest in such matters:

On Friday, April 16, 2010, William Douglas followed 59-year-old Sylvia Hollingsworth, who is white, out of a 7-Eleven at the corner of North King Street and Rip Rap Road in Hampton.

As she got into her car, he attacked her.

According to the police report, he punched the woman in the face, neck and arms and repeatedly slammed her legs with the car door. Throughout the ordeal, the woman was subjected to a tirade of racist profanity.

After the attacker’s ride sped away, the man fled the scene.

Police believe that a few minutes later, Douglas actually shot at another person.

The victim told WVEC 13 News: “Never once did he try to take my keys. Never once did he ask or try to take my pocketbook or any money. He was just out to hurt.”

Hollingsworth continued: “It leaves me hurt, and I feel like I'm a victim of a hate crime. Just in his own words, he hated whites and he was going to kill my 'f---ing' white ass, as he put it, and that's what he was trying to do.”

Hollingsworth, who walks with a cane, is still living with the injuries suffered in the attack.

William Douglas was charged with malicious wounding, shooting into an occupied vehicle and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

There was no robbery involved, and the attacker and victim did not know one another. So, when an attack occurs for no apparent reason, one has to look a little deeper for a motive, such as race.

The attacker in this case, was black, while the victim was white. While that fact seems to have been initially overlooked by the police as well as by most of those reporting on the incident, race-fueled hatred is apparently the only motivating factor in this case.

A few weeks after the attack, Hampton police announced that the case against Douglas had been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), for possible prosecution as a hate crime.

However, given the fact that our current Attorney General has himself, expressed his approval for the unfair way in which the law is often applied, it certainly came as no shock when the FBI dropped the case.

In June 2009, during his testimony before a Senate panel considering new hate crimes legislation, Attorney General Eric Holder clearly suggested that any new laws passed would not apply to white victims. When Sen. Jeff Sessions pressed Holder into saying exactly who would be protected under such laws, Holder gave his opinion that only those who have been subjected to “the unfortunate history of our nation,” should receive the added protection.

Douglas eventually pleaded guilty to assault and firearms charges, and was sentenced to serve a minimum of three and a half years in prison.

In April 2011, I spoke with the victim who informed me that the FBI interviewed her on multiple occasions, but did not offer her an explanation as to why the case was simply dropped.

Mrs. Hollingsworth told me that she has not been back to the convenience store where the attack occurred. She also said that for a time following the brutal assault, she was called a “racist” by some in her neighborhood for pressing charges against her attacker.

However, Hollingsworth is not bitter.

She said: “I’ve got some good friends, black and white.”

Though Douglas was not prosecuted for a hate crime, Hollingsworth is relieved that he will be off the streets for at least a few years.

The Norfolk and Hampton FBI offices refused to comment on this case.

While it was not surprising that the same Justice Department which dropped the case of voter intimidation against the Black Panthers, despite overwhelming video evidence, chose not to prosecute Douglas for his hateful attack…we should have expected and demanded that Virginia’s self-described ‘strict Constitutionalist’ Attorney General Ken Cucinelli to apply state law and charge Douglas accordingly.

However, he did not.

Virginia hate crimes legislation was signed into law in 1994, and states:

A. Any person who commits a simple assault or assault and battery shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, and if the person intentionally selects the person against whom a simple assault is committed because of his race, religious conviction, color or national origin, the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months, 30 days of which shall be a mandatory minimum term of confinement.

B. However, if a person intentionally selects the person against whom an assault and battery resulting in bodily injury is committed because of his race, religious conviction, color or national origin, the person shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, and the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months, 30 days of which shall be a mandatory minimum term of confinement.

If you wish to inquire as to why Attorney General Cucinelli has chosen not to prosecute William Douglas for a hate crime, for his violent, unprovoked attack against Sylvia Hollingsworth, nor get involved in the recent mob attack on two newspaper reporters in Norfolk, you may use the following link to do so:

Contact Ken Cucinelli...

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