A hate crime

[Pah]

[font=Palatino, Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][size=+2]Beaters of Satanist guilty of hate crime?[/size][/font]
[font=Palatino, Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][size=+1]Teens who allegedly attacked man could get tougher prison sentences[/size][/font]
[size=-1]Posted: January 13, 2005
5:00 p.m. Eastern

[/size][font=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times] [/font] [font=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times][font=Palatino, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times, serif]Complete article
[size=-1]© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com [/size][/font] [/font]

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[font=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]Two New York teenagers who allegedly assaulted a Satanist face hate-crime charges because the attack supposedly was motivated by the victim's "religion." [/font][font=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]The case stems from the Queens, N.Y., attack of a self-described Satanist, Daniel Romano, 20, by two 18-year-old men. According to news reports, Romano, who wears dark clothing and fingernails and sports a prominent upside-down crucifix, was attacked on Sunday by two teenagers who jumped from a car, yelled "Hey Satan" and beat him with a metal club and an ice scraper. Romano claims the beating, which left him in the hospital, was the culmination of more than a month of verbal harassment.[/font]

On Tuesday, Queens district attorney Richard A. Brown said the victim was attacked because of his "religious" beliefs – the youths thought he worshipped Satan – and announced that the two men, Paul Rotondi and Frank Scarpinito, would be charged with "second-degree assault as a hate crime" and two other charges, which could carry a 15-year prison term.

Joseph Seehusen, executive director of the Libertarian Party, is outraged by the prosecutor's action.

"What in heaven's name are these prosecutors thinking?" asked Seehusen. "When a law supposedly designed to protect religious minorities is being used to protect devil-worshippers, our criminal justice system has been turned upside down."

We at Religious Forums know that Satanism IS a religion and a minority one at that.


Bob






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[Sunstone]

It seems odd to me that a Libertarian would oppose providing legal protection to Satanists.

 

[Ceridwen018]

That makes me sick. Satanism is a religion like any other, and for anyone who's browsed the Satanism forum, you know that their beliefs are actually very intuitive and 'moral'. Devil-worshipper, my a**.

 

[huajiro]

I think they (like me before I came here), misunderstood his religion. That does not justify them attacking him. No one should have to fear being attacked for their religious beliefs.

 

[Dr. Nosophoros]

I consider myself a "Satanist" and I guess I could be classified as a member of a minority group (by someone who makes classifications) but I would never classify myself as a "victim" of a society and seek special laws to help protect me above and beyond anyone else. We have too many self proclaimed "victims" these days and the victim mentality makes me want to puke. It wasn't that long ago that so called "bikers" were whining about being "victims" LOL!, I'm gay- I'm a victim, I'm fat- I'm a victim, I'm a dumb a$$- I'm a victim, what makes them so special? anyway, enough with the rant.

I feel that "hate crimes" laws and designations are nothing more than the result of pressure from the political correctness crowd and are politically motivated garbage. A crime is a crime whether it is assualt,rape, murder etc. and all should be punished the same way no matter the motive. In my opinion, all personal crimes are "hate crimes" especially rape and murder.

 

[No*s]

It should be done. I don't care who was the victem. It's wrong to do that to anyone. It shoudl be treated just as if they were beaten for being a Jew or Christian.

 

[Pah]

...
I feel that "hate crimes" laws and designations are nothing more than the result of pressure from the political correctness crowd and are politically motivated garbage. A crime is a crime whether it is assualt,rape, murder etc. and all should be punished the same way no matter the motive. In my opinion, all personal crimes are "hate crimes" especially rape and murder.

Actually we have a long history of criminal law where motivation determines the crime. For example we have the progression from least serious (and lightly punished) to the most serious in causing the death of someone - vehiclular manslaughter, manslaughter, 2nd degree murder, 1st degree murder. I see no problem in adding manslaughter aggrevated by hate and increasing the punishement available for manslaughter or 2nd degree murder of 20 to life with no chance of parole because it was a hate crime.

Motivation - that's the key. It has nothing to do with political correctness.

Bob

 

[Dr. Nosophoros]

Actually we have a long history of criminal law where motivation determines the crime {break}Motivation- that's the key. it has nothing to do with political correctness

1st degree murder is pre- meditated murder, where the intent was to kill

2nd degree murder is non pre-meditated where there was a distinct posibility that the person might die

Manslaughter is killing without intent or forethought to do so

It has nothing to do with motivation, just the knowledge or lack of knowledge that you would kill someone or put them in a situation that they would reasonably be in danger of being killed, not because of their race, religion etc.

A green shoots and kills a purple to steal his car- he intended to kill him
A green shoots and kills a purple because he says he hates "purplers" -he intended to kill him

Why should one crime get more time than another? both intents are the same- the intent to kill the purple only in the second crime the green says he did it because he hates "purplers" so it becomes a "hate crime" that deserves stronger penalties-it makes no sense. how do you justify punishing someone more harshly because they committed a crime against someone because of their color, religion etc? it doesn't matter, a crime is a crime.

The reason this has to do with political correctness is because politicians,their lackeys, and the media have used still use racial issues to control opinion which can affect votes. The politicians have a hand in creating laws showing they "did something" to quell a problem that might not be as big as they pretended it to be in the first place, but hey if it helped get them voted in then all is well. Remember when Bill Clinton spoke at the burned out black churches during his reelection campaign? The ammount of black and white churches that were burnt at the time he went were not really any more than were burned in previous years,and the tally of white/black burned churches were about evenly split 50/50 why didn't he speak at white churches? - only in that election year did burned black churches become a huge issue.

{Leave out the origional post of the case of the satanist}- Do you believe that "hate crimes" laws are metted out equally in interacial crimes?

 

[kreeden]

If I'm not mistaken , Satanist may have nothing to do with " the Devil " at all . Discrimination often is the result of ignorance . So in that sense , Seehusen is as guilty as the two attackers ....

 

[Scuba Pete]

When ANYONE'S rights have been abrogated, ALL of our rights have been abrogated. Hate is NOT a family or Christian value. God doesn't need anyone's hate to do God's will!