Oct

26

It Rises To A Hate Crime Simply With Words

October 26, 2007 |

400 gays enter into a bar. Someone yells something and they fires shots. Someone is grazed by a bullet. It’s a shooting crime. But the extra harshness of sentencing will come not because they intended to kill or main someone. It will come because of the words they spoke.

[Sovo.com] “I don’t understand why there are so many faggots here,” the man said, according to Harris.

As the three men returned to the tan Chevy Blazer, the shooting victim and his friend left Chevron and walked past WETbar.

“As the victims were walking past the WETbar, the SUV drove up to them, again shouted slurs at the victims, and the suspect fired four to five times at the victims,” according to an APD incident report.

Although Georgia has no hate crimes law (see related story, this page), the Atlanta Police Department annually reports the number of hate crimes in the city to the FBI. The APD is investigating the WETbar shooting as an anti-gay incident.

“This is definitely a hate crime because of what was yelled at the victims,” Harris said.

Hae crimes may one day be charged simply for the words spoken and not for any action associated with those words. Do you want the power of the state used by special interests to prosecute words spoken by various groups? The Christian who speaks out against Christian homosexuality… or doesn’t condone living together… or says they don’t agree with the government’s programs that feed the lazy. Could any such things rise to the level of a “hate crime” and therefore be prosecuted? Given some time… yes.


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