Hate Crimes in America: What is the Law and How Does it Apply?
March 2, 2017
Hosted by Mitchel Winick and Stephen Wagner, with Michael Cohen
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Episode Description
The FBI investigated what are now called hate crimes as far back as World War I. However, the FBI's role increased following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Before then, the federal government took the position that protection of civil rights was a local function, not a federal one. A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. A hate crime is defined as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” However, it is important to remember that hate itself is not a crime and many words and actions are constitutionally protected as free speech. Listen to today's program to learn more about the definition, tracking, and prosecution of hate crimes in the US. Are incidents increasing? Or is reporting increasing? Is this primarily a criminal, or political issue?
Wagner and Winick On the Law
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Wagner and Winick On the Law is the talk radio program for individuals interested in contemporary legal issues, social policy, and the protection of personal rights within our legal system. Co-hosted by law school President and Dean Mitchel Winick and law professor and trial attorney Stephen Wagner, the program features live interviews with lawyers, judges, business professionals, and policy experts discussing legal issues that affect our daily lives. Guest co-host law professor and attorney Michael Cohen adds an international law dimension in his bi-weekly program segment “International Crossroads”. As the hosts remind listeners every week, "If you don’t know the law, know a lawyer!"
Mitchel Winick and Stephen Wagner, with Michael Cohen
Stephen Wagner and Mitchel Winick have broadcast together as co-hosts since Wagner and Winick On the Law began broadcasting in 2014 on KSCO AM 1080, one of the nation’s leading independent talk radio stations. Michael Cohen has joined the program as a regular guest co-host and as producer of the special segment, “International Crossroads”.
Mitchel L. Winick is the President and Dean of Monterey and San Luis Obispo Colleges of Law. Winick’s thirty-year career has included legal education, law, and business. A former Assistant Attorney General of Texas, Winick has served as V.P. of a publicly traded company, senior partner in a management consulting firm, and co-founder of a venture capital firm.
Stephen Wagner serves as a law professor at San Luis Obispo College of Law and as a trial deputy, specializing in vehicular homicide cases, with the San Luis Obispo County DA's Office. As a law professor, Wagner teaches Criminal Law and Evidence. He is a former prosecutor with the California District Attorney’s Association and the San Benito DA’s Office.
Michael Cohen is a law professor and a partner with Sheppard Mullin's Antitrust and International Competition Practice Group. Cohen hosts the bi-weekly “International Crossroads”. Starting in law enforcement as an Assistant Special Prosecutor, Cohen has spent more than two decades defending multinational clients across the globe. Cohen teaches Constitutional Law and Business Organizations at Monterey College of Law.
