Violence Among The Amish

Last month, the Sixth Circuit Court of  Appeals overturned a 2013 hate-crime conviction against 15 members of an Amish separatist group who forcibly cut off the beards of other members of their religion.  It reopens the question, how could this happen, and is what they did a hate crime?

They came at night.  Two or three people would hold down the victims, often elderly, while another used a battery-powered clippers to shear the victims' beards or hair.  Then they would take pictures.  The 16 Bergholz barbers, as the group became known, carried out five attacks on Amish men in Ohio over the course of three months in 2011.  Often, the perpetrators were sons or daughters or in-laws of the victims.  All of them were part of another Amish community of 100 people who lived together in central Ohio.  In 2013, they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 15 years, becoming the first ever Americans to be convicted of hate crimes under the federal statue.  Just recently this conviction was overturned.  Two judges on the three-judge panel upheld counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and lying to the FBI, but said the attacks didn't meet the standards of a hate crime.

As outsiders, we think of Amish as peaceful people, living an idyllic life in a rural community.  The customs and mores of their society are not known to most of us, and they are often seen as a curiosity.  Whether this act meets the standard of a hate crime, has been argued by lawyers and judges.  Some say yes, some say no.  This particular case was ultimately found NOT to be a hate crime.  It definitely reopens the question, "What is a hate crime?"