Dori: Why isn’t destroying Christmas decorations a hate crime?

“Grinches.” “An act by Scrooge.”

Stop the cartoony phrases and start calling what it is: vandalism. For that matter, if it involves destroying Christmas decorations, let’s start calling it a hate crime.

While watching a FOX13 report about a rash of Monroe neighbors whose Christmas yard inflatables had been slashed and destroyed, the double-standard started nagging me. Destroying Christmas decorations is something a fictional “Grinch” does?

What if the offenders had done the same thing to yard décor belonging to a Jewish homeowner? Ruining an outdoor menorah? Or what if people went around destroying something in a yard belonging to a Muslim family?

Immediately, that would be a hate crime.

But what happens when vandals destroy Christian or Christmas symbols? Well, then you’re simply a “Scrooge” or a cartoonish “Grinch.”

When we see, hear, or read stories about people who destroy Christmas symbols or set Christmas trees on fire, it should remind us that this is a crime – an actual crime.

Unless, of course, Christmas is too mainstream to be protected by our society.

Hear Dori’s take in Tuesday’s Big Lead:

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