From today's Trib:

"Maryland became the first state in the nation to extend hate-crimes protection to homeless people under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

The bill adds homelessness to the protected categories under Maryland's hate-crimes law, which allows prosecutors to seek tougher penalties for those who target people because of factors such as race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation."

Read the rest here.

I would like to go on record as saying that hate-crime legislation ranks as one of the dumbest, knee-jerk reactionary legislative moves ever made.

Some guy gets his face smashed in because someone hates gays or Jews or the homeless and the law tacks on extra time to the perpetrator's sentence? Who the Hell cares why the guy's face was smashed in? Penalize the crime, not the motivation behind it. That same perpetrator smashes in Clam's face and he doesn't do as much time. How is that right? Is Clam's face not as important as a Jewish guy's face?

Depends on the Jewish guy.

Clam's face is less important than this Jew's


More important than this Jew's:


And about equally important as this Jew's:

quote:

That same perpetrator smashes in Clam's face and he doesn't do as much time. How is that right? Is Clam's face not as important as a Jewish guy's face?

Hhhhhmmmm,let me think about this one.

quote:

That same perpetrator smashes in Clam's face and he doesn't do as much time. How is that right?

The guy would be doing a public service!

I disagree.

Most criminal penalties are tiered based upon motivation, ie manslaughter vs. 1st decree murder. Criminals who perpetrate hate crimes are despicable and deserve a stronger sentence.

Speaking of vagrants, One was staggering around Penn and Main tonight. He appeared to be on some sort of controlled substance and was aggressively panhandling. I watched an older couple (late 70's ) turn away from Honey and go back to their car to avoid this guy as he started to block the entire sidewalk.

Called in GE's finest. Offer (Mr. too lazy to get his *** out of the squad) pulled up next to this guy while he was on the north side of Honey, asked for ID checked it then drove away! This lasted all of 15 seconds.

As Officer ( too lazy to get his *** out of the squad) drove away, the vagrant was back at it as soon as the squad turned onto Main.

Nice Job G.E.P.D. Glad I called Oh. . . . and by the way, I don't want to leave my name for your records. . . . . . I don't have a record, but I'm sure the vagrant did. Did you check it?!

quote:

Originally posted by Mamattorney:
I disagree.

Most criminal penalties are tiered based upon motivation, ie manslaughter vs. 1st decree murder.

Not really, they are differentiated based upon whether the crime was premeditated, not on why they wanted the victim killed.

quote:

Criminals who perpetrate hate crimes are despicable and deserve a stronger sentence.

So the criminal that kills your children because they have brown hair should be penalized more than the criminal that kills your neighbor's kids because they were Jewish?

I'm neither a sociologist nor a statistician, but I'm fairly confident that most beatings are committed by people who know each other (maybe a bar fight, a domestic dispute, etc).

In my mind there is a big difference between someone who fights with a person in a bar and "takes it outside" than someone who comes across a complete stranger who is minding his own business and beats that person half to death simply because that person is black, gay, Jewish, etc.

quote:

an existing variable (as possibly in the Shepard controversy)

..."During the trial, Chastity Pasley and Kristen Price (the pair's then-girlfriends) testified under oath that Henderson and McKinney both plotted beforehand to rob a gay man . McKinney and Henderson then went to the Fireside Lounge and selected Shepard as their target.

I think we know that the variable was to go after a gay man and only a gay man. The demonic murderer's girlfriends testified to this effect under oath.

Hate is alive and well in this country and it needs to have it's consequences and be treated like the crime that it is. Can you imagine being at your son's funeral who had just been beaten, robbed, pistol-whipped and left for dead, and having these hate-mongers show up? :

"The anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, led by Fred Phelps, picketed Shepard's funeral as well as the trial of his assailants,displaying signs with slogans such as "Matt Shepard rots in Hell", "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" and "God Hates Fags". When the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that it was legal to display any sort of religious message on city property if it was legal for Casper's Ten Commandments display to remain, Phelps attempted and failed to gain city permits in Cheyenne and Casper to build a monument "of marble or granite 5 or 6 feet (1.8 m) in height on which will be a bronze plaque bearing Shepard's picture and the words: "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

Chilling indeed. Homophobia is a very real, very destructive, learned condition that, if left to have no consequences when it flares into rage, abuse, murder, etc... against another human being, it will only deepen and get worse and more destructive.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GlenEllynRing,

quote:

Originally posted by Mamattorney:
In my mind there is a big difference between someone who fights with a person in a bar and "takes it outside" than someone who comes across a complete stranger who is minding his own business and beats that person half to death simply because that person is black, gay, Jewish, etc.

Agreed, but why stop at the protected classes? Race, religion, sexual orientation . . . what about political affiliation? What about appearance? What about weight? Why protect a few classes and not others? What about wealth? What about High School affiliation? If what you want to punish are unprovoked attacks on strangers, why not do that, why do you have to tie it special minority status? Does society's condemnation of particular classes really determine what is just in a particular attack? Shouldn't justice depend on the particular facts and circumstances of any particular attack? Assume the quotes about the Mathew Sheppard attack are accurate, I've heard them before, aren't they really looking for someone weak. In their ignorant opinion, gay = weak and easily cowed. This makes them biased and stupid, but I don't know if it shows that they hate gay people. Criminals target women and the elderly for the same reason, because they are good victims, not because they hate them.

Are you sure these laws even have the impact you probably assume anyway? My understanding is that hate crime prosecutions tend to be heavily weighted towards prosecuting African Americans for attacking whites and other races.

If anyone would like to truly educate themselves on the horrors of homophobia and allow your mind to be expand beyond our 'bubble' that is Glen Ellyn, take the opportunity to rent the HBO movie (based on the play) The Laramie Project.:

"The play draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theater company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entries and published news reports. It is divided into three acts, and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes...The Laramie Project is often used as a method to teach about prejudice and tolerance in personal, social, and health education and citizenship in schools, and it has also been used in the UK as a General Certificate of Secondary Education text for English literature."

Matthew Shepherd was also much more than just a 'gay meth addict' as he is often portrayed by ignorant folks that fail to see the human side of this 'gay martyr' who died because of what he was:

"Matthew Shepard, oldest son of Dennis Shepard and Judy Shepard, was born in Casper, Wyoming on December 1, 1976. He attended Crest Hill Elementary School, Dean Morgan Junior High, and the first two years of high school at Natrona County High School. He was a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church. Shepard spent his junior and senior years of high school at The American School In Switzerland. After graduating in 1995, he attended Catawba College and Casper College before he relocated to Denver. Shepard then became a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming and was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council.

He was described by his parents as "...an optimistic and accepting young man [who] had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Matthew had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of people's differences."

However, Shepard faced his own inner battle. During a high school trip to Morocco he was beaten and raped, causing him to withdraw and experience bouts of depression and panic attacks, according to his mother Judy Shepard. One of Shepard's friends feared his depression caused him to become involved in the local drug scene during his time in college."

I posted this out of respect for Matthew so that his good side, major accomplishments and loving nature are portrayed rather than just lumping him into the group 'gay meth addict.' which is truly shameful.

FBI data show more than 1,000
reported hate crime incidents directed at gays and lesbians in the year 2005 alone.1
For example, earlier this year {2007}, Andrew Anthos, a 72 year-old man in Michigan, was
beaten to death with a metal pipe because he was gay. But, for the purposes of this
legislation, the most important point is that every act of violence committed against
an individual based on hatred for gays and lesbians is meant to send shockwaves of
fear and intimidation throughout the entire gay community. Law enforcement groups,
who only endorse legislation they consider to be in the best interest of public safety,
also agree there is a problem that merits the passage of an expanded Hate Crimes
law.2
The Message: “This isn’t about providing something ‘special’ to gays and lesbians; it’s
about protecting them from hate-directed violence. The more than 1,000 hate crimes
directed at gays and lesbians every year are meant to intimidate and instill fear in the
hearts of the entire gay community. Gay Americans deserve the same basic freedom from
fear, intimidation, and hate-directed violence that we all take for granted. It is time to tell
the relatively few but dangerous Americans who seek out gay people to torment that their
violent actions are unacceptable. Police organizations have asked for this, they say they
need it, and we ought to listen to them.”

Source: thirdway.org

The Message: “The hate crimes law protects religious liberty and does not punish
thought. This bill isn’t about what you think or believe. This is not about your religious
faith. It’s about those who harass and torment gay people and the violence they sow. Their
intimidating and violent physical actions must be punished.”

Source: thirdway.org

Overall Message
“I support the Hate Crimes law because it passes three tests. It solves a real problem. A
relatively small number of truly violent people seek to use violence to intimidate and instill
fear in the hearts of the entire gay community. This legislation does not punish what
people think, feel or believe, but what they do physically and criminally to harm others.
And it reaffirms America’s promise made over 200 years ago to life, liberty, the pursuit of
happiness, and justice for all.

Source: thirdway.org

Random acts of violence are despicable, of course. But being targeted for a belief, orientation, race, religion - yes, I think that does make it worse. Because it's not random at all, then. It's what Hitler did, only on a personal scale. If Matthew Shepherd hadn't been gay, he wouldn't have been murdered.

quote:

Thought Crimes are bad.

“The hate crimes law protects religious liberty and does not punish
thought. This bill isn’t about what you think or believe. This is not about your religious
faith. It’s about those who harass and torment gay people and the violence they sow. Their
intimidating and violent physical actions must be punished.”

From the NYU school of Journalism:

“The Matthew Shepard Story: Secrets of a Murder,” which aired Nov. 26, promised shocking new information about the case. But it contained mostly speculation, scandalous details, unreliable new witnesses and revised confessions ."

"Judy Shepard was available for comment. Matthew’s mother, who appeared in the report, told www.365Gay.com that the editing by 20/20 of her interview left out all her comments regarding the show’s potential bias. “My remarks were reduced to a few very personal maternal comments taken out of context to make it appear as if I agreed with 20/20’s theories,” she said in the article. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

Also from the NYU School of Journalism report:

Osborne also cites a letter obtained by Denver television reporter Rick Sallinger of News4 and reported in the Rocky Mountain News in 1999. According to this letter, attributed to McKinney, he learned that Shepard was gay, he “flipped out” and beat the college student with a gun. Shepard “said he was gay and wanted a piece of me,” according to the letter. “Being a verry (sic) drunk homofobick (sic) I flipped out and began to pistol whip the f-- with my gun.”