On December 7, Seattle Police arrested a 26-year-old man who was suspected of being involved in a hate crime against a cab driver in Magnolia.

According to Seattle Police Department, the cab driver picked up the suspect, two males and a woman in Belltown, just after 2 am. When they arrived at their destination (4200 block of 27th Avenue West) the cab driver began processing the suspect’s credit card. There was a delay with processing the card, which irritated the suspect. He told the driver to “go back to (his) own country,” then punched the driver in the head repeatedly. SPD reported that the suspect said to the 34-year –old cab driver, “You are a terrorist. …You should go back to your own country. … I will shoot you.”

The blows caused the victim to lose consciousness. His foot slipped off the brake, and the cab began rolling down a hill, striking several parked cars before finally coming to a stop at the stairs of an apartment building.

The victim told police that once the cab came to a stop he regained consciousness. Undeterred by the car careening down a hillside and crashing material on the street, the suspect continued to beat the victim and was joined by the two other males in the car.

The suspects fled the scene but did not go far. The incident was reported to a dispatcher and police arrived shortly after. While police were there the suspect returned to the scene. He said that he was involved but claimed he acted in self-defense. Despite his pleading, the victim identified the suspect, and the suspect was arrested for investigation of malicious harassment.

Seattle Fire Department treated the cab driver at the scene. SPD is investigating the incident.

So how prevalent are incidents like this?

According to a 2012 FBI report, that year Seattle had 47 bias crime (hate crimes) attributed to race, 13 to religion, 19 to sexual orientation and six to ethnicity.

Washington State Law says that a person is guilty of felony malicious harassment if that suspect intentionally commits one of the following acts based on a victim’s religion, ancestry, race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, or sensory handicap:

• Causes physical injury to the victim or another person
• Causes physical damage to or destruction of the property of the victim or another person; or

• Threatens a specific person or group and places that person or group in reasonable fear of harm to person or property. The fear must be a fear that a reasonable person (in the identity groups) would have under the same circumstances. Words alone do not constitute malicious harassment unless the context or circumstances surrounding the words indicate the words are a threat.

Misdemeanor charges can also result from threats made to a person based on the above criteria.

According to the SPD website, investigators take Malicious Harassment/Bias Crimes very seriously. They have a Bias Crime Detective assigned specifically to cases of this nature.

For more information, visit http://www.seattle.gov/police/safety/harassment/default.htm