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This from yesterday's media which featured amongst others on microsoft news.
http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=1381
I hope the link works.
Angharad.
Comments
Saw this
This sort of shit scares the hell out of me!
BTW, Erin, in referring to this incident, wrote a really fine defense of hate crimes charges over on Crystal's Cyberboard. She did a great job of explaining and validating charging people like this schmuck with a hate-motivated crime, over and above murder. Go take a look.
http://www.storysite.org/cgi-bin/crysboard/cyberboard.cgi
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
saved me some work
I was in the middle of doing research for a comment on Ang's grim blog here when I found your link to Erin's post. Thanks Karen. She said most of what I was trying to articulate. Thanks, Erin. You saved me some cogitating that would be better applied to chapter 3 of PLAY NICE. My research was looking up all the laws in different states detailing "qualifying factors" for harsher sentances in murder convictions. Funny how those who howl about the SPECIAL TREATMENT hate crime legislation provides target groups---saying that murder is murder and all murders should be prosecuted equally---are oddly silent about all the other laws making distinctions between murders, or assaults, etc. (A sort of selective thought process remniscent of those who pick one or two of the myriad injunctions in the Book of Leviticus & such, to take seriously and condemn as Abominations, blah blah blah...).
The quantity of the fear that a hate crimes creates among the targetted group many not be any greater than the fear a crime ummotivated by bigotry spreads---EEEEK, THERE'S A MURDERER RUNNING AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD!!---but there's a qualitative difference. The latter makes people fear for their physical safety, probably in the short term, until the fiend is caught. Hate motivated crime threatens our very sense of place in society, not to mention the paradoxical self hate that bigotry can generate...
Another murder, more tears, here's to hoping for a brighter, more enlightened tomorrow.
Things can change. They haven't lynched a chinaman around here in quite some time...
~~~hugs, Laika
.
And Kudos to the Denver Daily News for their capable use of pronouns
and descriptive terms regarding the victim in this article...
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Equally Scary is the Guy in Tennessee....
that shot up the Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville killing 2 people (he planned to kill as many as he could) and wounding several others because he thought they were part of "the liberal movement". Here's a pretty good summary: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/29/suspects-note-cites... if you haven't run across the story already.
In one of the articles that I read, a church member commented how ironic it was that (in his hatred) the gunman had attacked the people that were most likely to try to help him if he had asked.
I found out about this earlier
at the bilerico blog.There is a person named Brandi who supposedly works for Transgender equality Virgina over there playing the blame the victim game and lecturing about how this wouldn't of happened if she just revealed her status.After making comments about what a couple other bloggers had posted or stated I gave her something to worry about.I pointed out that she represents Transgender equality Virginia and if that is what it is I hope I never experience their type of equality.I then pointed out that it's not right to play the what if or to use someones death as an example of what not to do whether that person is T or lgb and that only enables the murderer.It just really sucks when someone in our community acts that way.Two posts down after that she posted that her views are personal and aren't the views of transgender equality Virginia.I plan on sending them an email to help ensure her views are separate from transgender equality of Virginia's on a permanent basis.A saddened and pissed off Amy---Erin that was an excellent explanation of why charge for a hate crime and thank you for the link Karen J---"May your pen never run out of ink and your brain out of ideas"