Comments on: "It wasn’t a hate crime…"

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:04:00 +0000

This is really sad because the man (and or girlfriend’s) hatred for the pentacle is probably based on ideologies that aren’t even true. Same for the cops (I know it’s a small offense and cops are busy people, but I think there would be a bit more hub bub about it if it was a nativity scene or something to that extent).

While this wasn’t a huge crime or anything, I think he should get something as anyone else would in a similar situation… plus he openly admitted that he drove while intoxicated.

By: tigerwren

tigerwren — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:43:00 +0000

I’m calling it a hate crime since he ran over property and not a living, breathing thing.
And I really think people need to pick their battles. We’re starting to sound like these thin skinned christians who feel slighted whenever they aren’t allowed to pray in public.

By: asphodel-ale

asphodel-ale — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Well, other than the drunk driving charges, I think it’d be appropriate to make him pay for at least one, but preferably three, more pentacle displays.

Some community service requiring him to watch over the displays to make sure they aren’t damaged would also be in order. (The girlfriend should be required to do this as well, for instigating a crime.)

By: M

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 05:20:00 +0000

Can’t they at LEAST get him on drunk driving charges? I mean, if he was intoxicated enough to impair his judgment, and he ADMITS it, and that he was driving a car at the time, that’s pretty much an admission of guilty for DWI.

It’s just like the perpetrator who threw the pentacle wreath off the holiday display in Green Bay. The nativity scene was untouched, but the pentacle wreath was thrown to the ground and vandalized. I’m sure there were cameras around city hall, so there must have been some video record. Did they go after the vandal? No. And they won’t. And they won’t in this case, either.

By: Robin Edgar

Robin Edgar — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:34:00 +0000

If he even gets caught. . .

It doesn’t sound like the police are all that motivated to catch the perps.

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:27:00 +0000

Hmm…maybe lay him down in the snow and roll a pentacle over him…

The best that will probably happen would be that it’s treated as a property crime, misdemeanor variety, and he won’t get diddley done to him really.

By: Robin Edgar

Robin Edgar — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:19:00 +0000

Hmmm. . . I wonder if I can get this Totalitarian Unitarian, and self-proclaimed "Citizen`s Police Officer", charged with criminal mischief or something?

As far as the Pentagram incident goes it clearly involves the willful destruction of a religious symbol at the behest of someone who apparently hated it. If someone backed their pick-up truck over a creche scene, or into a synagogue`s entrance etc., I expect that this act of destruction would be treated as a hate crime.

By: Johnny Lemuria

Johnny Lemuria — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:15:00 +0000

I’m not a big supported in the very concept of “hate crimes”. Still, the guy was drunk enough, behind a the wheel of a car, to commit destruction of public property in order to impress his girlfriend, so he should be prosecuted for _something_.

By: Innocent Dave

Innocent Dave — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:37:00 +0000

Well, let me think. Is this a crime? Obviously, it’s criminal damage. Is it motivated by hatred towards a religious group? Of course. Even if that hatred was purely the girlfriend’s, this is still obviously an example of religious intolerance and harrasment.

Sadly I suspect most of the cops and legal types involved in this will be christian, and from my personal experiences with the police I’d be suprised if none of them feel the guy did the right thing.