Comments on: Vandals target LGBT media boxes

By: jayson

jayson — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:32:27 +0000

You are correct, you are certainly not a lawyer, but just as slanted as one.

By: Jayson

Jayson — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:37:03 +0000

The problem is people are equating any incident they experience as a hate crime showing their ignorance of the basis for the law. When one starts to use their sexuality as an excuse of why things happen to them, we all lose.

By: brian

brian — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:10:14 +0000

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…I think you are STRETCHING the purpose of DC’s hate crimes law. I thought I was the victim of a hate crime, until representatives of DC’s Gay/Lesbian police unit informed me that what I experienced was a “hate bias incident.”
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I’m not stretching the purpose of DC’s hate crimes law at all, Jack. These CRIMINAL acts of property destruction and defacement appear to target LGBT-owned (or perceived as such) businesses and their largely LGBT (or perceived LGBT) customers. Hate crimes like these have an impact on entire communities by exercising intimidation upon, and engendering fear within members of such targeted communities. That’s very much what DC’s hate crimes law is intended to address.

The key difference between these acts against the Blade and MW, and your case may be that of an actual *criminal* act(s) being perpetrated. You did not provide the specifics of your case, so I have no basis for comparison, nor for opining on MPD’s response to your complaint. However, “hate bias incidents” are often so designated by MPD/GLLU because a violation of an actual crime or crimes did NOT actually occur.

For example, it’s not a crime to call someone a “faggot” or any other anti-LGBT slur, if that is all that occurs. Only when such name-calling is coupled with at least one actual crime, actually in DC’s Code books– i.e., a “designated act” specified in DC’s hate crimes law (homicide, assault, injury to property, etc.)– does DC’s hate crimes law apply as a criminal matter.

By: Jack Sprat

Jack Sprat — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 01:42:44 +0000

I’m not a lawyer either, but I think you are STRETCHING the purpose of DC’s hate crimes law. I thought I was the victim of a hate crime, until representatives of DC’s Gay/Lesbian police unit informed me that what I experienced was a “hate bias incident.” So, if these media boxes are more protected than I am, then this is a serious problem.

By: brian

brian — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:42:14 +0000

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Can one commit a “hate crime” against a media box?
*****

I’m not a lawyer, but IMHO, a hate crime can be committed against business entities whose owners and/or customers are among the designated classifications of people DC’s hate crimes law (#22-3701 +) is intended to protect.

“Injury to property”– which as I understand it, covers a number of DC private property crimes (e.g., destruction of private property, both felony and misdemeanor, taking property without right, defacement, etc.)– is one of the “designated acts” specifically cited in DC’s hate crimes law.

Let’s hope MPD catches this/ these perpetrator(s), and that USAO-DC can prosecute these acts of vandalism as the instances of anti-LGBT hate crimes they appear to be.

DC’s hate crimes law is designed to facilitate victims’ rights and remedies under BOTH DC criminal and civil procedures. And its is MPD’s duty to protect victims’ rights by accurately reporting and classifying each incident.

So it would appear– again, IMO, from press reports– that MPD should have already listed these crimes as possible hate crimes on their 251 reports. This would give the Blade and MW stronger options to seek civil remedies as well, in the future, if the perp(s) are caught and the circumstances/ situations warrant civil action under DC’s hate crimes law (Bias-Related Crimes Act).

By: jerry

jerry — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 21:40:10 +0000

There is a longer discussion of this problem in the current issue of Metroweekly in the online edition.

By: Robert Rockwell

Robert Rockwell — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 05:07:07 +0000

Can one commit a “hate crime” against a media box?