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UK: Card Factory accused of homophobia for selling offensive 'fag' birthday card
143
London: Gay couple threatened with death in violent late night homophobic assault
142
Government considers watered down same-sex marriage bill to minimise Tory rebellion
133
Tory MP Gerald Howarth: 'There are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who want more than just same-sex marriage'
95
France: Far right activist commits suicide in Notre Dame following legalisation of equal marriage
93
Norman Tebbit: David Cameron has 'f**** things up' with his equal marriage bill
67
US church blames Woolwich suspected terror killing on UK acceptance of gay people
66
Tory MP Sir Gerald Howarth defends 'aggressive homosexual community' equal marriage slur
66
Sir Gerald Howarth: 'I should have used 'militant' rather than 'aggressive' to describe homosexuals
66
David Cameron: Gay teenagers will stand that bit taller following equal marriage vote
63
Robert in S. Kensington 769
Midnighter 461
GulliverUK 364
D.McCabe 358
Mark Y 346
Jock S. Trap 320
That There Other David 314
Iris 307
Sasha 295
Wingby 267
Ah, Texas. You don’t seem to have changed much since 1860, do you?
Any place that produced the likes of the Bush clan has to be one of the most backward and ignorant places on Earth. They should have been allowed to secede when they proposed it some years ago…. They teach creationism in science class ffs.
Even Sheldon Cooper hates the place and he was raised there…lol
Bush Junior? He is from Connecticut.
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The officer is out to lunch…I wld say it is a hate crome
This may not have started as a specific hate crime but the obvious element of homophobia should be treated as an aggravating factor.
The southern states really need to do something to sort themselves out.
While the action of the assailant here is reprehensible the technicalities of the Texas Hate Crime statute would make prosecution for such difficult . While it is clear the assailant escalated the confrontation to actual assault and battery upon learning that the victim was a lesbian the actual wording of the Texas statute reads:
“the defendant intentionally selected the person against whom the offense was committed . . . because of the defendant’s bias or prejudice against a group identified by race, color, disability, religion, national origin or ancestry, age, gender, or sexual preference.”
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CR/htm/CR.42.htm
The problem is while he clearly evidenced the mens rea of prejudice motivating his actions based on his own exclamations, he may not have strictly fit the definition (which under U.S. criminal law is required, due to Federal Constitutional requirements prohibiting “vagueness in criminal law”) of “selecting” the victim based on such
prejudice, since he was already involved in an altercation with the victim. This may be especially relevant in light of the crime which motivated the final passage of the act which involved perpetrators going out looking for victims of a particular race to attack. It is an unjust result but and is an unfortunate “loophole” created by United States criminal law standards of prosecution (designed to protect against overly broad laws) and poor drafting.
In fact the “poor drafting” may be evidence of the battle/compromise over wording that ensued over its passage which involved those who were against any form of hate crimes laws, those who were outraged by the crime which finally resulted in its passage (race based murder) and those who were against it because of refusal to “give special rights to” (i.e. actually protect) gays and lesbians. In fact, due to the extremely low rate of application of this hate crimes provision, some Texas legislators have called for investigation into why
that is the case. A different drafting such as “committed the crime based in whole or in part because of . . . ” could have more easily covered this particular act.
The man makes it clear where his kid learned to be a bully.
In Scotland, there would be ten people on his back and over his mouth to protect the kids from the disgusting things he said. That being said, I just watched a video set up of a waitress abusing a gay couple in a cafe in Texas and over 50% of people rose to their defense, some in a truly amazing way. It isn’t the place, it’s the individual. Shame on him.
The local law enforcement are refusing to treat it as a hate crime simply because it involves a little more paperwork. Shameful!