The Supreme Court rules that racist insults such as "monkey" or "fucking nigger" constitute hate crimes

ValenciaCalling someone a "monkey" or a "fucking nigger," especially in front of others, is a hate crime. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court, which upheld a ruling by the Provincial Court of Valencia with the same verdict. The decision is a key step, as it establishes a legal precedent, a circumstance that should put an end to the existence of both acquittals and convictions for similar behavior.

The Supreme Court found a man guilty of a hate crime and a minor threat for threatening to kill and calling the owner of a business in Valencia a "fucking nigger" in January 2022 because the owner had told him he couldn't help him with a customer. The insults continued when a police patrol arrived, at which point the convicted man referred to the restaurant owner as a "monkey" and berated the officers for the way they were treating him, being Spanish, unlike the bar owner. He asked them when they planned to "expel" the owner from the neighborhood. The high court also upheld the six-month prison sentence and €1,260 fine imposed on the man.

The judges justified the classification of the act as a crime because the victim was attacked for not having Spanish nationality, and the term "fucking nigger" was used with "a clear intention to hate the victim because of his race and skin color." In their ruling, the judges emphasize that in these verbal attacks, "discrimination not only affects the specific victim, but also the community," and they highlight that this aggression can be carried out both directly, through personal interaction, and in the digital environment, where they denounce that xenophobia and racism are particularly prevalent on social media. In this regard, they stress that hatred is not expressed in private, "but rather made public to deepen the victim's wound so that not only he or she, but also society as a whole, knows that this person should be hated for being different." The ruling also makes special reference to behaviors that occur in large venues and highlights that "there is a widespread manifestation of hate crimes at public events, especially in sports arenas," where athletes are seriously insulted because of their race. In this respect, they emphasize that this circumstance should not be considered less serious, nor should it "devalue" the gravity of the acts, and that, on the contrary, it must be prosecuted.

Filling a legal loophole

The Supreme Court's ruling has been welcomed "very positively" by organizations working to integrate newly arrived immigrants, such as València Acull. Paco Simón, one of their spokespeople, explained this to ARA, highlighting that the decision "fills a legal void" created by the decriminalization of slander in 2015. "This ruling gives us legal tools to prosecute these crimes and addresses the request made by prosecutors," Simón emphasized, adding that hate crimes, far from decreasing in recent years, "are becoming increasingly frequent."