Three women identified by their lawyers as lesbians were arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge for allegedly beating a gay man at the Forest Hills T station in an unusual case that experts say exposes the law’s flawed logic.Well, here we have it folks: the reductio ad absurdum of identity politics. Crime is crime, and attempts to make someone's motive a criminal act in addition to the crime itself makes this kind of ridiculous situation inevitable. Is a violent attack less heinous when it is not motivated by homophobia? Is a heterosexual victim of an assault less victimized? Idiocy indeed.
“My guess is that no sane jury would convict them under those circumstances, but what this really demonstrates is the idiocy of the hate-crime legislation,” said civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate. “If you beat someone up, you’re guilty of assault and battery of a human being. Period. The idea of trying to break down human beings into categories is doomed to failure.”
Prosecutors and the ACLU of Massachusetts said no matter the defendants’ sexual orientation, they can still face the crime of assault and battery with intent to intimidate, which carries up to a 10-year prison sentence, by using hateful language.
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Saturday, February 25, 2012
Is it a hate crime when three lesbians beat up a gay man?
Apparently in Boston it is:
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4 comments:
This is yet just another silly example of so-called hate crimes. It was assault and the three should be charged and prosecuted whatever their sex or sexual orientation.
It is an assualt to do bodily harm. no matter what race creed or gender. it is still an assualt and charges should be laid.
No hate crime here. As long as we have legal same sex marriage, abortion, selective abortion and affirmative action hiring practices within the federal bureaucracy I see no crime here at all. In fact these people should be given special consideration under the liberal charter of rights and so called freedoms as a disadvantaged group. Just saying……
These are black lesbians and like most black defendants accused of assaulting people who aren't black, they will say that the victim called them nigger. By the time the trial is over the gay man will be lucky if he's not in jail.
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