Hate Crimes Through 2024: Iowa — Kedarie Johnson and the Weight of a Name

Burlington, Iowa. March 2016. Kedarie Johnson was sixteen years old. Gender-fluid. A high school student. Two men lured Kedarie into their car, knocked Kedarie unconscious, gagged them, wrapped a plastic bag around their head, drove to an alley, shot Kedarie twice in the chest, and doused the body in bleach. One defendant was convicted of first-degree murder. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division cross-designated a federal hate crimes prosecutor to assist Iowa state prosecutors — an acknowledgment that what happened to Kedarie was a hate crime.Fifteen states into this series. Kedarie Johnson's case is the most methodical, premeditated killing the DOJ's case file has documented in any state this series has covered.Iowa is also one of the few states in this series with a consistent declining trend — 105 incidents in 2021 down to 65 in 2024. That is a genuine, documented positive development, and this show names it. What it does not do is let a declining trend line erase the weight of what sits underneath it.The second federal case: a Des Moines woman who, within thirty minutes on December 9th, 2019, drove her car over curbs to strike two different children because of their perceived race — one near Creston Avenue, one near Indian Hills Junior High School in Clive. She was sentenced to more than 25 years in federal prison.This episode also covers the full cumulative data — Anti-Black bias leading at 121 for the fifteenth consecutive state, Anti-Jewish bias third at 44, White offenders at roughly 80% of identified cases — the highest proportion this series has documented anywhere — and two murders in the cumulative offense data.The trend line is declining. The cases underneath it are not abstract.Timestamps00:00 - Disclaimer01:01 - Introduction02:57 - The Thesis04:37 - Opening07:08 - The Background10:23 - The Data16:25 - Personal Thoughts19:41 - ClosingAfternoon Coffee Break with Darren Watts. Follow the show wherever you listen. Rate and review on Apple Podcasts — thirty seconds, it matters. Number 17 Cult All Time. Number 33 Business News All Time on Goodpods — because of you.Iowa hate crimes 2024, Kedarie Johnson Burlington Iowa, hate crimes through 2024 series, anti-Black hate crimes Iowa, Des Moines hate crime children, Iowa gender identity hate crime, anti-Jewish hate crimes Iowa, Iowa declining hate crime trend, Afternoon Coffee Break Darren Watts,