"If Robert Gum and Deanna Powers' YouTube video shows what Anchorage police say it does, then Anchorage witnessed a hate crime earlier this summer. Police say the two tough-talking young adults picked out a Native man who was on the street, minding his own business, and threw a water bottle and eggs at him, shoved him, kicked him and threatened to do worse with fists and a knife, while insulting his Native heritage.

That kind of behavior is reprehensible and disgusting. It's an embarrassment to our community. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms and we commend the unnamed person who saw the video and reported it.

Society can't always prevent pathetic, prejudiced people from doing violence to others, but society can, and must, aggressively prosecute and punish hate crimes when they happen."

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Our view: Hate crime (The Anchorage Daily News 8/24)

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