Perp should be tried and then jailed for long enough to lose his job as “President” of whatever he thinks he’s in charge of. Three months in jail sounds reasonable
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I totally agree…I was pointing out that that’s all they have currently charged him with…it needs to be felony assault with intent to harm.
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Putting him away for the assault.
It seems to me that the first one is vandalism and the second one is vandalism, along with the separate crimes of intimidation and threatening violence. I think the term “hate crime” reflects a perfectly normal and reasonable feeling of disgust that we have when asshole bigots victimize members of disenfranchised groups. I think the name is fine, but I also think it further complicates legal issues, and gives asshole bigots something to deny, when they can’t deny their vile actions.
So, I disagree with the legal concept of hate crimes, but I sympathize with the desire for them. That said, I’m sure we all agree that this guy in Austin should go to prison and give up most of his money to his victims.
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I am a fan of hate crime laws.
But I wasn’t always. I realized that I was buying into the people on the right who were mocking them, making strawman out of them and using the difference between the legal definition of hate and the vernacular.
The Christian right uses it as a defense, “They are going to make acting as the Bible tells us a hate crime!” (I have audio clips of this exact arguement)
The other thing I noticed was the use of “free speech” as reason to not go forward o hate crime laws. The people didn’t want to chill someone’s ability to make racial slurs combined with violence that might “already be punished under the current laws”
Those both might be legitimate reasons to not push for a crime to be proscutived as a hate crime. However when something does fit the criteria, I say go for it. Because that is the reason those laws were passed. The crimes ARE different and they ARE meant to send a message.
Finally I go back to the comment of my Canadian friend who pointed out how often Americans put themselves in the shoes of the person in power, rather than the victim.
As a Jewish gay black man I can understand why hate crimes need to be passed, I have seem them and been the target of them. As a Christian straight white man I can RELATE to those who might have been accused wrongly. who might be wrongfully targeted because of a “few bad apples.”
Who you identify with makes a difference.
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I was attempting to “yes and” your comment
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I am becoming more of a fan for the Tagessatz model, where fines, bail and so on are set on terms of the person’s daily income/net worth.
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Thanks! Just wanted to be clear!
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That’s pretty much the only model that can achieve justice. Otherwise the disincentive for the rich is much milder than it is for the poor, to the point where you get “punishment is only for little people”.
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Sadly, this does seem like typical oil exec behaviour. It’s a very macho, testosterone fuelled culture where aggression is considered a virtue. Much like investment banking, I’m afraid.
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Yeah, a 51-year old man peeling out of a parking lot in his no-doubt enormous truck is just sad. That’s the kind of thing high school boys do.
I try to scold myself whenever I apply the accelerator in anger… even though I drive a <100hp car with 4 cylinders of which I only think 3 are firing… But in 2nd or 3rd gear I can kinda move (OH BABY) and lay rubber… enough to remind myself that I need to behave like an adult and that all I’m doing is ruining my (cheap) tires.
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I accidentally burn a little rubber right after the first rain in awhile. But it’s never out of anger. My 1997 Accord can’t burn rubber unless the road is wet.
Although I do floor it on the freeway onramp. Just for fun. But it doesn’t put anyone at risk.
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My car puts me at risk every time I merge using a high-speed ramp… due to my inability to gain the appropriate level of speed.
I can only burn any rubber because it’s a manual… and I am blessed with being a reckless idiot when it comes to preservation of my pocketbook.
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I used to be into hypermiling. I had an automatic 1991 Ford Tempo (from 2008-2009) and manually shifted it. I’d throw that deathtrap into neutral every chance I got, crept out of stop signs (while I wasn’t rolling through them) and taking hills at the lowest RPM I could manage. I spent a lot of time forcing the poor beast into 1st and 2nd gear going downhill to spare the brake pads. But it wasn’t worth it.
My 2001 Hyundai Accent has the rear seat permanently stored in the garage and has been a 35 MPG pickup truck with a covered bed for about a decade. Full size interior doors, 50 gal. water heaters, tons (literally) of wood and stone and concrete (generally no more than 1,200 pounds at a time).
When “Ita the Meter’ Eater’” gives up on me, she’ll deserve a goddamn purple heart… or strawberry field.
(Second best thing about removing the rear seats from a 2-door hatchback: Never being the designated driver.)
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I like gay people and I’ve been known to peacefully condone a tipsy young man humping my leg on more than one occasion.
On the other hand I get pretty fired up if a pedestrian just cuts in front of me and flips me off if I object to his failure to observe basic etiquette and turn taking.
Is this gay bashing or is this pedestrian vs motorist road rage the rage being expressed in slur words as well as violence? It’s hard to tell without observing how the driver would handle heterosexual pedestrians in a similar situation.
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Doesn’t matter. In no instance is getting out of your car and hitting someone justified. Exempting of course, you’re some kind of action movie hero who knows with certainty that getting out of your car and knocking out a pedestrian will somehow save the downtown children’s hospital from a bomb attack. But I am willing to bet my entire life savings here that this wasn’t the case.
A person in a vehicle that would sustain no functional damage at all from an all out assault by an unarmed pedestrian, got out of their vehicle to show them what’s for. And he should rot in jail till his number comes up on the docket. He could have ignored the pedestrian, and drove away. He could have spent a few seconds yelling back at the pedestrian. He could have revved his engine threateningly and passed it off as “idling is bad for my aftermarket cold air intake”, but instead he decided to perpetrate an act of violence, either because his driving was momentarily interrupted by a percieved sleight, or by his hatred. Take your pick. Either way, he went out of his way to offensively enact violence on another individual. That’s barbaric behavior that we teach our children is wrong and unjustified. Why should we tolerate it at all from an ostensibly grown-ass man?
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Ford Tempo clutch plates are cheaper than brake pads?
I was 19 years old, I didn’t know. All I knew is that if I lost my RadioShack-grade part-timer health insurance, my hourly rate there couldn’t pay for a month’s worth of prescription stimulant ADHD medication on its own.
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