Is This a HATE CRIME ?

Guest · Apr 8, 2003

Friends and witnesses said the three teens could not resist the opportunity to follow Whistnant from a corner market Saturday afternoon to his building.

In the lobby of the building at 22 Elliott St. - once known for heavy drug-dealing before becoming a haven for people with mental impairments in recent years - the teens confronted Whistnant, jeering and taunting him as he took a seat on a radiator and prepared to open one of the soda bottles he had just purchased, according to witnesses.

The boys grabbed the bottles and hurled them at Whistnant. One of the bottles struck him on the side of the head and sent him to the ground, according to building officials who reviewed the incident on a security videotape.

"You could see him kind of drop to the ground next to the windowsill and then the kids kept pouring soda on him and kicking him," said Oscar Negron, the building superintendent. "There were a bunch of kids in the lobby, but it was really these three who were doing most of the damage."

http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-attack0408.artapr08,0,454204.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

Guest · Apr 8, 2003

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Hartford police say a trio of teenage boys beat and kicked a mentally retarded man to death in the lobby of his apartment building.

Authorities say the teens pelted 39-year-old Ricky Whistnant with bottles of soda he had just bought. The 300-pound man collapsed and hit his head on a radiator.

He died at the scene Saturday.

Police say the boys continued to kick the man after he fell and poured soda on him. They say the teens fled the scene but were apprehended several hours later.

Neighbors called the victim "Batman" because he stood in front of the apartment building wearing a homemade costume. Whistnant often told residents that he was guarding them against crime.

FunkSoulBrother · Apr 8, 2003

If the intention behind the beating was that he was Mentally Retarded, sure, I'd say so.

Guest · Apr 8, 2003

Being Mentally Retarded and obese probably made him the "target."

FunkSoulBrother · Apr 8, 2003

Well then sure. If he did nothing to provoke them than be Obese and Retarded, sounds like a hate crime.

Though I'm not sure how the law defines it.

Jazz · Apr 8, 2003

To be honest, I've never actually ever seen the definition of a hate crime - does anyone have that?

Regardless, some of my worst hate is reserved for those who ridicule, make fun of or dismiss the mentally handicapped - I had a friend in high school who was, and I witnessed first-hand the small cruelties otherwise well-meaning people (and others just jerks) would inflict because it made them feel superior, a need they obviously felt strongly, or else they were just afraid. I did a lot of standing up in those days for him, and every time I see a story like this, I feel absolute revulsion and hate for those who did it.

Maybe that's the crime, making me feel hate like this - I don't like feeling that way.

radiofreecostarica · Apr 8, 2003

Yes, it is a crime.

Jazz · Apr 8, 2003

If I'm reading the following right, 'disability' crimes are tracked by the feds as a statistic but are not considered actual crimes for the purposes of charging someone ... but I'm no lawyer ...

http://www.units.muohio.edu/psf/police/hate.htmlx

According to the United States Code, a hate crime is "a crime that manifests evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, disability, sexual-orientation, or ethnicity/national origin." This definition is used strictly for gathering statistical information on biased crimes reported to the FBI as part of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Currently, classification of an offense as a "hate crime" does not affect the state or local charge, nor guarantee that it is a violation of federal law.

Determination of a bias motivation is made by the law enforcement agency investigating the offense. However, federal guidelines require that to be reported to the FBI as a hate crime, bias must be determined by means of objective evidence such as language, graffiti, or other known symbols of bias (i.e. a burning cross). The mere fact that a victim is a minority does not, in the absence of objective evidence, make the crime a hate crime.

Under current guidelines, the FBI only records bias motivation when the offense is one of the following crimes: criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny (theft), motor vehicle theft, arson, simple assault, intimidation, and vandalism. Although other crimes (telephone harassment, criminal mischief) can meet the federal definition - and are therefore hate crimes - they are not tracked statistically in the UCR.

The FBI only investigates those hate crimes that also violate federal law. Because a different definition from the one used to gather statistics is used to define federal crimes, an offense meeting the statistical definition above must also fall into one of the following categories in order to be a federal offense:

Violation of an individual's civil rights due to race, color, religion, or national origin.

Damage to property endowed with religious significance.

Interference with freedom of access to clinics offering reproductive health services.

As stated previously, other crimes may meet the statistical definition of a hate crime without meeting the elements of a federal offense.

Under the Ohio Revised Code (ORC), certain crimes become more serious offenses if a bias based on race, religion, or national origin is involved. Section 2929.12(B) of the ORC also requires Judges, when sentencing a felony offender, to consider bias motivation grounds for a harsher penalty.

[This message was edited by Jazz on 04-08-03 at 07:49 PM.]

delrio · Apr 8, 2003

Weak minded people often use mentally handicapped individuals as objects, in order for them to feel a little bit better, superior...
What else can we say? OF COURSE IT IS A CRIME !!!

Guest · Apr 8, 2003

Jazz, arent "hate crimes" passed by individual states? If so, the definition will vary widely.

Jazz · Apr 8, 2003

FF - check my re-posting above and go to the link - I do believe states can also pass hate crime laws but it's too much for me, a non-lawyer, to research, so I just looked at the federal aspect.