Wednesday, November 25, 2009

When a Hate Crime is Not a Hate Crime


Three people were arrested in the beating of Brian Milligan on the city's East side this summer. Milligan is the white teenager with the black girlfriend. The three suspects are black teenagers.

I never was big on the term "hate crime". It seems to me that a crime is a crime. If a judge is presented with evidence that a crime is committed because of a person's race, they should feel obligated to sentence the convicted to the maximum sentence under the current law. I never felt like a separate law needed to be created, especially when it is only selectively enforced.


Having said that, Byron Brown's comments at the press conference were ridiculous. He said the crime didn't happen because of race but was just "senseless, pointless, violence", as if what they did was just teenagers being teenagers. If it's true, that's even more reason to throw the book at these three lowlifes. They beat a random kid nearly to death with concrete for no reason because he was walking in their neighborhood? If the same crime happened on Seneca St, and three white scumbags beat up an innocent black kid (because he had a white girlfriend), would that not be a hate crime? Actually, it's the definition of a hate crime. Oh well, just another day in Buffalo. Don't worry, they'll be sentenced to three hugs and be out committing violent acts again soon.

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