Monday, February 07, 2005
The Worst Instrument of Crime
Warning: graphic description of instrument of crime below - not advised for children to read.
Did they hit the people with the bullhorn, sending them to emergency services? No. Did they throw the bullhorn on innocent babies at the audience? No. In what way, then, was this vicious instrument used?
To speak.
Oh, my God! No, not speech! That most vile crime. And with a bullhorn even. Oh the horror, oh, how frightful! Off with their heads! Life in prison, at least.
Actually, aside from the hate speech absurdity, and the fact that this case seems to have been framed from the start, I have a question about the infringement of protest distance, which the protesters apparently did infringe. However, since they infringed it to speak, and they did not incite anyone to violence, could anyone ever reasonably characterize that as incitement to riot, as the prosecution has argued? Is a disruption of a parade always equal to riot or is it total hyperbole here? If that is incitement to riot, as per the law´s definition, there is a lot of incitement to riot going on in society.
It will be interesting to see if the bill passes.
Also interesting to note that the numbers of years in jail (I think the 47 is the total for all accused) even individually is higher than a lot of the sentences child molesters/abusers get.
Update Feb 17-2005:
'Philly 5' Are Free!
Philadelphia Judge Clears Christian Demonstrators of 'Hate Crimes' Charges
"The next chapter of this story is just beginning," says attorney Steve Crampton, "and that is, our federal lawsuit against the city for what we believe to be an intentional effort to suppress First Amendment rights."
The CLP is calling for the Department of Justice to investigate what it describes as "corruption and profound abuse of power" by city officials as they pursued the case against the defendants. "[T]he city clearly continued to prosecute the Christians with a vengeance during the hearing with bad faith arguments," states a CLP press release.
"Frankly, the 'hunters' have now become the 'hunted.'" says Crampton. "We intend to ask hard questions and vigorously pursue discovery to figure out exactly why these charges were ever leveled in the first place."
New bill introduced because of the Philly case of:
Five of the Christians arrested at the Outfest event are stilling facing 47 years in prison and fines up to $90,000 each. Those who were arrested committed no violence against homosexuals at the gathering. However, a city prosecutor declared that the bullhorn used by one of the Christians was an "instrument of crime."
Did they hit the people with the bullhorn, sending them to emergency services? No. Did they throw the bullhorn on innocent babies at the audience? No. In what way, then, was this vicious instrument used?
To speak.
Oh, my God! No, not speech! That most vile crime. And with a bullhorn even. Oh the horror, oh, how frightful! Off with their heads! Life in prison, at least.
Actually, aside from the hate speech absurdity, and the fact that this case seems to have been framed from the start, I have a question about the infringement of protest distance, which the protesters apparently did infringe. However, since they infringed it to speak, and they did not incite anyone to violence, could anyone ever reasonably characterize that as incitement to riot, as the prosecution has argued? Is a disruption of a parade always equal to riot or is it total hyperbole here? If that is incitement to riot, as per the law´s definition, there is a lot of incitement to riot going on in society.
It will be interesting to see if the bill passes.
Also interesting to note that the numbers of years in jail (I think the 47 is the total for all accused) even individually is higher than a lot of the sentences child molesters/abusers get.
Maybe they're amazed because they saw the Associated Press story showing that of 1,115 people convicted of sexually abusing children in New York City between 1993 and 1995, only 44 percent went to jail. More than 30 percent received probation and 20 percent received conditional discharges.
Update Feb 17-2005:
'Philly 5' Are Free!
Philadelphia Judge Clears Christian Demonstrators of 'Hate Crimes' Charges
"The next chapter of this story is just beginning," says attorney Steve Crampton, "and that is, our federal lawsuit against the city for what we believe to be an intentional effort to suppress First Amendment rights."
The CLP is calling for the Department of Justice to investigate what it describes as "corruption and profound abuse of power" by city officials as they pursued the case against the defendants. "[T]he city clearly continued to prosecute the Christians with a vengeance during the hearing with bad faith arguments," states a CLP press release.
"Frankly, the 'hunters' have now become the 'hunted.'" says Crampton. "We intend to ask hard questions and vigorously pursue discovery to figure out exactly why these charges were ever leveled in the first place."
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