Things that make you go, “Hmm…”

Updated on October 5, 2007 By Ken Begg 9 Comments

The Duke LaCrosse Team victims are suing former (now happily disbarred) DA Mike Nifong and members of the local police department for prosecuting them for a crime that pretty much was obvious from the beginning had never occurred.  However, I was particularly struck by this statement of Nifong’s to ABC News, made back when he was attempting to try the case in the court of public opinion instead of, you know, a court of law; since in the former little matters like whether the crime actually happened or not weren’t quite as relevent to him getting the verdict he wanted:

“This case, where you have the act of rape — essentially a gang rape — is bad enough in and of itself, but when it’s made with racial epithets against the victim, I mean, it’s just absolutely unconscionable.” [emphasis mine]

If you agree with that statement, then I imagine you might well support the idea of ‘hate crime’ laws.  However, to my mind the following re-formulation of that statement is rather more supportable, and probably explains why I most assuredly *don’t* support hate crime laws:

“This case, where you have racial epithets made against someone, is bad enough in and of itself, but when these are accompanied by an instance of gang rape, I mean, it’s just absolutely unconscionable.”

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  • Food

    Words speak louder than actions, I guess.

    I hope the prosecution tears through Nifong and his team like paper.

  • It’s hard to believe that they won’t. His actions were extraordinarily egregious and well-documented.

  • John Doe

    well put mr. begg. well put. it seems that acts of murder and rape aren’t that bad anymore as long as they’re not directed against a member of a special interest group.

  • fish eye no miko

    Ken, how do we get to the last post (the one with the Cubs logo upside down)? Under Posts, “Previous” is blank. I noticed you didn’t give it a title, and that seems to be causing some trouble linking to it (it did that yesterday, as well, when it was the most recent post).

  • And another experiment fails. Title added, and thanks for the notice.

  • Andrew

    I have a problem with hate crimes simply because the name is not truly accurate. A lot of murderers hate the person they kill, but this hate only “counts” if you hate them because they belong to a protected category of people? Makes no sense. Are all other murders “love crimes”?

    I also have a problem with the lack of symmetry. I was once beaten by a number of black youths (I am not black) who called me “white boy” while doing so. they had no other apparent motive, not even robbing me when they left me unconscious and bleeding from my ear and mouth. The police first responded by saying “What were you doing in that neighborhood? Why would a white boy be there?” (Imagine if the races were reversed and they asked that question… Jesse and Al would have had a protest up and running the next day…) To the credit of the local police, they did refer me to the “hate crimes” officer, who called me once… That was 16 years ago, I am still waiting for the promised follow up. Again, imagine if five ro six white youths assaulted a black man while shouting racial slurs, would that man be waiting 16 years for the second phone call?

  • sardu

    Ken, I think that’s a marvelous way to make the point. I’m gonna be using it! *g*

  • JoshG

    I remember reading about a similar case in the 80’s that also got a lot media attention and turned out to be bogus.

  • Dan Coyle

    I don’t particularly have a problem (or an opinion, really) about hate crimes laws, but that statement by Nifong was just retarded.