Anthony Hill, a 30 year old resident of Newberry, was shot to death and dragged for approximately 11 miles behind a pick-up truck. Anthony Hill was a black man. The man suspected of killing him, 19 year old Newberry resident Gregory Collins, is white. While this heinous crime did not occur in Pickens County, it certainly impacts and should affect people everywhere.
Any violent crime committed against another human being is inherently rooted in hatred. Unless the criminal is a true sociopath, an individual must feel an overwhelming intensity of fear, anger or a sense of personal injury, to hurt, torture or kill another person. Thus “hate crimes,” by their very nature and definition, are fueled by a fiery passion.
The murder of Anthony Hill has not been classified as a Hate Crime. According to reports, Hill and Collins were co-workers and friends. The pair was often witnessed having lunch together at the chicken processing plant where they worked. Investigators also believe that the men spent time together outside of work and had spent several hours together prior to Hill’s death.
Whatever the motive behind the killing of Anthony Hill might be, the very act of tying one end of a rope around a human being and the other end to the back of a vehicle, driving the vehicle while knowingly dragging a person behind, should, at the very least, prompt a conversation among members of any community.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrived to assist Newberry County sheriff's deputies with the investigation into whether the death was a hate crime, a determination that will be up to the U.S. Justice Department because South Carolina has no hate crime statute.
Racism has and continues to have strong connections to Southern history and culture. There is no way to dance around this issue nor is racism an issue we, as human beings, should dance around. Unless there is an open dialogue, until people start talking about an issue, it is impossible to even being to work toward a viable solution to the problem.
Hatred and racism are problems that continue to plague American society even in the 21st Century. These cancers that fester and eat away and undermine communities are not isolated in the south; they exist everywhere in every country across the globe. No community is immune.
However, whether we want to face it or not, there is no denying or ignoring the fact that here, in our home state of South Carolina, a mother has had to explain, will have to help her children come to terms with the fact that their father was not only shot and killed, but also that his body was tied to an automobile and dragged along a stretch of highway for 11 miles. His body left on the side of the road, discarded like the caucus of some unfortunate animal who happened to wander out in front of a car.
The fact that Hill was a black man only adds more fodder to the burning questions and amps up the intensity of the debate. If a heterosexual white male had been dragged behind another heterosexual white male’s vehicle, the FBI would not be involved in the investigation in an attempt to determine whether or not the incident should be classified as a “hate crime.” The new Black Panthers Movement would not be organizing a rally. Sure, people would talk about the crime and how horrible a crime it is, but white-on-white violence would not spur the kind of intense, racially charged conversation that Hill’s death has to create.
In an ideal world, the death and dragging of Anthony Hill would be an incredible, albeit morbid, opportunity for community members to start talking, to knit together, to ask questions and seek answers. Why is the federal government involved in the investigation of this crime? Because there is no hate crime legislation in South Carolina.
Why isn’t there hate crime legislation in South Carolina? It most definitely is not because this is a utopian state free of racism. So why? Why are there not laws in place in this state to protect victims of hate based crimes and to severely punish those who committed crimes on the basis of race, religion or sexual orientation?
Of course, in an ideal world, Anthony Hill would not have been shot to death , his lifeless body dragged for miles.
