Woodstock, Vermont, is a hotbed of anti-gay hate crimes. Actually, it’s not. But someone spray-painted a “Gay slur” on retired Police Chief Joe Swanson’s mailbox. Joe is married to Nicholas “Nico” Seldon. The “Chief” was also involved in a demotion kerfuffle that required judicial intervention. The case is not, however, being investigated as simple vandalism because of the slur.
Let me guess. Same name for a ‘bundle of sticks,’ or maybe a cigarette in the UK.
Police said in a prepared news release, “Because of the nature of the language used, the incident is being investigated as a possible bias-motivated offense, commonly referred to as a hate crime.”
Y’all know how I feel about “hate” crimes. Invented bullshit so cops and prosecutors can pigpile another charge or two, the purpose of which (generally) has nothing to do with peace or justice. It is to overwhelm the accused. If any sort of plea or reduction is offered, the invented charges (like hate crime) give the false appearance that the defendant is getting something in exchange for pleading guilty. Speed up the process for everyone else’s benefit.
Hate crimes are also a vehicle for silencing speech, which is an assault on the First Amendment. SCOTUS has already made it clear you can’t silence speech using hate crimes legislation, but it happens, often disguised as civil rights violations, right, AG Formella?
There are presumably at least two sets of balls in the Swanson house, and yet no one seems to have any. It’s simple vandalism. You either remove it or get a new mailbox. But Nooooo. It might be a hate crime because while you can write fag or faggot to vandalize a straight person’s house (no hate crime), if you put it in Retired Chief Swanson’s, it’s a different act altogether.
No one was harmed, not even the mailbox.
We also can’t forget that there are probably more fake hate crimes or hoaxes than real ones. If anyone was serious about the cost of public safety resources, it comes up when you discuss policing; they’d acknowledge this inconvenient truth.
Hate crimes are subjective in a way that is otherwise wild speculation in a courtroom. That you knew beyond a reasonable doubt what their state of mind was.
One more point. As with the infamous N word in the black community, the words fag or faggot, outside its somewhat colloquial use as a bundle of sticks or a cigarette in the UK, are more common in the “Gay community.” What kind of crime is it if a gay man wrote fag on another gay man’s mailbox?
The same crime as if anyone else did. Vandalism.
Legislatures need to grow a set as well and repeal hate crimes laws and/or clean up their civil rights laws so we can stop wasting time and resources on this stupid cultural Marxist word circus.
