Monday, December 22, 2008

What entails a hate crime?

December 22, 2008

Morning Joe

They're discussing barry's pick of Rick Warren and the LGBT outrage.

JOE: When you call people who don't agree with you're a bigot--

MIKA: You're cutting off the conversation.

JOE: If, I disagree with somebody on same sex marriage, then I'm immediately called a bigot. The conversation ends right there.

Do they even listen to themselves? What did we hear from them during the election season? People not voting for barry were bigots. They couldn't get their heads around a black man being president. They weren't voting for another candidate they were automatically voting against barry and therefore bigots.

This exhausts me.

The Double Standard and hierarchy of -isms is alive and well. Racism has it's own rules and wins out over any other type of prejudice. What is "white racism"? Or "reverse racism"? When did racism become color-coded? Sexism, ageism and prejudice against homosexuals are ok in various forms. Women are whiny man-hating, sweatshirt and Birkenstock-wearing feminazis. Ageism is a punchline. And gays are being unreasonable because it's a moral not civil issue.

Human rights are human rights.

And barry can do no wrong. He's bringing people together...he's uniting America...he's the greatest president-elect who hides behind a federal prosecutor when they did nothing wrong.

So why the silence?

It's just another politically expedient decision. What else would it be? barry is most certainly not going to lose the LGBT vote and is pandering to the right. Didn't he used to be the most liberal senator when it suited his needs? Voting 97% time with his party with no dissenting votes of consequence? He is trying to ensure his place in history without having done anything but nominate people and the proobamedia is coronating him as the second coming of Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy and Reagan.

Name one great senator he resembles - a job he has actually had.

Anyone?

Sexual "orientation" is not universally covered as a hate crime whereas race is. Matthew Shepard was savagely murdered 10 years ago and there is still no all-inclusive bill. Since then only 8 states have added sexual orientation. The Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 passed in the Senate 60-39 on September 27, 2007. All Dems yea - plus Coleman, Collins, Gregg, Lugar, Sanders, Smith, Specter, Snowe, Voinivich, Warner. McCain not present. It was eventually dropped mainly because Bush vowed to veto it. barry says it's going to be a priority.

We'll see, won't we?

2006 DOJ Hate crime statistics

12,620 law enforcement agencies participated in the UCR Program's hate crime data collection. Agencies provided 1 to 12 months of data about bias-motivated crime, and of those agencies, 2,105 (16.7%) reported 7,722 incidents. 83.3% of the 12,620 participating agencies reported that no hate crimes occurred in their jurisdictions.

Alabama and Mississippi reported ZERO cases. That's an absolute impossibility.

51.8% racially motivated -- 64.4% anti-black

15.5% sexual orientation -- 98% anti-homosexuals (transsexuals not categorized)

Now consider that only 3% of the population identify themselves as homosexuals. So, from this data, hate crimes against homosexuals are disproportionately high and hate crimes in general are markedly under reported.

And 45 states (+ DC) have statutes covering race, religion, and ethnicity but only 31 of them cover sexual orientation.

The stats speak for themselves and the LGBT community should be allowed to speak. And to be heard. And not referred to as "fascists" like scarborough just did.

==============

You may know about the gruesome torture and murder of Matthew Shepard.

Now consider the case of the white female nurse's aide who hit a homeless black man with her car and then went home and had sex with her boyfriend while the homeless black man bled to death in her garage.

The force of impact impaled him in the windshield - forcing his head and torso inside her vehicle. His right leg was fractured in two places and his left nearly amputated.

It is unclear if she stopped and tried to extricate him. She would have had to pull on his legs.

She drove several miles home, his face inches from hers as she apologized for hitting him and he moaned in pain and pleaded for help. She ignored him. She then pulled into her garage, shut the door and left him there to bleed to death. She didn't know how long it took him to die because she eventually stopped checking on him.

He did not suffer a head injury or any type of internal injuries. He would not have died from his leg injuries. He knew what happened to him and was in severe pain. He begged her for help. She promised she would get him some. She never did - even though she continued to check on him. She did not give him the water he asked for. She did not render any type of first aid even though she was a nurse's aide and knew how to do so. She did nothing to cover him - his pants and underwear were hanging off his leg.

She let him bleed to death, naked from the waist down, impaled in the windshield of her vehicle, with his mangled legs splayed on the hood of her car.

Eventually he knew he was going to die. Alone. He knew help would never come. He knew the people he could hear inside the house weren't going to help him. He knew she had lied to his face each time she came out to see if he was dead yet. He knew he was going to die impaled in the windshield. He knew that his naked body would then have to be disposed of. He knew there was a chance his family would never know how or where he died. He knew he would never again see his son or attend his marriage. He knew he would never see his grandchildren or say goodbye to his family. He knew there was a chance his body would never be found and thus not receive a proper burial. He knew that the women who hit him and allowed him to bleed to death like an animal might never be found. And he knew that she might never be punished for killing him while withholding medical assistance and torturing him with assurances that help was coming.

I don't know how someone can be so evil. What possesses someone to do this to another human being? How could she continue to go out and listen to him beg? How could she walk away? A nurse's aide? Pure evil.

The case was broken after the nurse's aide giggled to her friend: "I hit this black man." And then she went on to say she had sex with her boyfriend while the naked homeless man moaned in agony. She later denied saying it. She said she was afraid to call for help because she was high on alcohol, marijuana and ecstasy.

The woman's attorney, MIKE HEISKILL:

[His client] not the animal or monster the police are portraying her to be. [She is] not this cold inhumane person that we've heard about. I think this is overreaching on the part of the prosecution and the police and, in the end, I believe the law will shake out that this was simply a case of failure to stop and render aid.

Read that again.

Her two male friends - both white - eventually yanked the dead homeless man's body out of the windshield - leaving behind his tissue and hair and a big pool of blood - took him to a local park and dumped him like garbage - still naked.

The coroner said he could have been rescued even after he was inside her garage. He had no other life-threatening injuries. There were no head injuries that would have rendered him unconscious. It took approximately two hours to for him to bleed to death.

Did you hear about this case?

Did you hear Revs Sharpton and Jackson or Johnny Cochran in the news raging about the reckless disregard for human life? That a white woman allowed a black man to die in her garage impaled in her windshield and then threw him away like trash?

No. You didn't. For a very good reason. Change the races on all the players. The woman was black and the man was white. It was not prosecuted as a hate crime. And if the races were reversed it most assuredly would have been.

How can a crime be more heinous? How is what she did not extreme indifference for a human life? Why should there be a difference relative to their skin color?

Her statement to the son of the man she lied to and allowed to die:

MALLARD: I am so sorry, Brandon. I am so sorry for what I have caused your family. And I'm sorry for the pain that I have put my family through.

The victim's son Brandon went on Larry King after the verdict and had this to say:

BIGGS: Well, I believe there is something good in every situation. Positively, it's making me a stronger person. It's going to make me able to speak with other people who are going through a tragedy like this and not just with sympathy but with empathy. But negatively, there are probably too many to even list. He will not be around for the rest of my life and that's -- that's a very sad thing.

CALLER: Brandon, I would like to know how in the world could your family sit back and let your father be homeless?

Sick and heartless. Brandon was 18 at the time and his father had been homeless for approximately 2 1/2 years. His father struggled with bipolar disorder but Brandon had a relationship with him - seeing him at the shelter where he lived.

KING: And what was it like for you and him?

BIGGS: Well, it was great. We did a lot of fun things together. We went shopping. We went fishing. Just had a good time with each other....He would stay in a shelter on Lancaster Avenue in Ft. Worth and he would actually pay rent there. It was kind of a place for people who were down to get back up on their feet. And so, when he told me that he was living there, I would go visit him as much as I could and we would still go do the things that we had always done.

KING: Did he -- was he able to look for work? Was he trying to get his life straightened out?

BIGGS: Yes, he was, Larry.

KING: So, you can say the two of you were very close?

BIGGS: That's right.

Brandon wants to be a pastor. He forgave the woman who allowed his father to suffer and die and be thrown away like garbage. He went to court everyday. He heard the testimony and saw the gruesome pictures. He heard how her accomplices "got rid of the dude". And he forgave her. He was 20 y/o at the time (2003).

BIGGS: The forgiveness, well, it comes because I've been forgiven of so much. And I just -- I can't not forgive other people, no matter how grievous -- no matter how grievous. Life is too short to live with all the anger and the bitterness. It's just too short for that.

She was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years. What would they have done to her in Iran?

Gregory Biggs (37) and convicted murderer, Chante Mallard (27)

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