Justice delayed

On the surface, it looks like the system works. A Cherryfield man nearly runs down a group of kids, one of them black. Threats and racial slurs fly. A noose is fashioned. The driver’s companions join in with more threats, some shoving. A civil suit is filed, criminal charges are pending.

Fine, except for one thing: This cowardly attack occurred in June, yet the criminal charges against Jason Lisee were brought just last week.

That the Maine Attorney General’s Office would need three months to put together its civil-rights action is understandable — building a case on racial bias can take time. It’s the delay by Washington County authorities on the criminal side that is disturbing.

Lisee, 22, now has been summoned to court on charges of driving to endanger and assault. At least one of his partners in thuggery also may — that’s may — be charged. What, one might ask, changed between June and September?

The answer, apparently, is nothing. The numerous witness statements gathered in June were just as valid then as today. Lisee and his Camaro Crew are just as free, pending court approval of the state’s request for a restraining order, to terrorize the innocent. The 15-year-old black youth and his friends got to spend their summer vacation living in fear.

Had the attack been more mundane, had the group of victims been chosen at random or included the object of a personal grudge, there is little doubt charges would have been brought at the time. Even minor charges, misdemeanor assault or threatening, for example, would have accomplished much: The attackers would have been put on notice; a judge could have included a no-contact provision in bail conditions; the victims would have been given some measure of safety.

Had local law enforcement acted swiftly, had criminal charges led the civil action and not vice versa, perhaps the sheriff’s department and the attorney general would not now be investigating the racially motivated attack upon a black man in nearby Jonesport a few days ago. Perhaps, in Penobscot County, a Howland teen would not have been attacked twice since June by a gay-basher before the Attorney General stepped in late last month. Not sending a message often sends the wrong message.

Critics of hate crimes laws claim such measures are flawed in that they elevate one crime over another. An assault is an assault, they say. A threat is a threat.

That would be true is bias-based assaults and threats were treated as routine assaults and threats, with swift local action taken to at least compel the attacker to leave the victim alone. The power of the state to sue for civil-rights violations should be a bonus tacked on to a criminal charge, not a substitute.

The Attorney General’s Office has brought some 110 hate-crimes defendants to court in the last five years. In all but three cases, the restraining orders that accompanied the civil action worked. Local law enforcement has the same ability to keep alleged assailants away from alleged victims, but it can, and should, act with greater speed. The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but they must begin to turn at the moment an injustice is done.