Hate Crime Investigation At Tamalpais High School

The Monterey County Sheriff's Department and the Mill Valley Police Department are cooperating in the investigation of a series of hate crimes against a gay student at Tamalpais High School that started last November. Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Crain reported that the sheriff's department has investigated three incidents against the student since November. The latest incident on Monday, a note written on the student's car, was being investigated by the Mill Valley Police Department, Crain reported.

In November, the 17-year-old student found a note on her vehicle outside her home in the sheriff's jurisdiction that read, "You can run but you can't hide. We know where you live. When we're done with you, you'll burn in hell," Crain reported. Later that month, another note was left on her vehicle that read, "They make it harder but not impossible. We only fight harder. This is your last warning. We are around every corner and it's time."

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http://www.kfty.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=37AE5826-059C-43E9-9D72-BA299CFE5E03

That's the most absurd, PC appellation to come along in ages.

I have yet to find any crime that wasn't committed out of hate.

Ridiculous.

easy one -drunk driving, drug sales,bank robbery

You look at the origins of those violations, and you'll always find rage and hate. Always.

I disagree. Poverty, ignorance, rage is not hate, necessarily. I think some robbers do it strictly as a job.Drug dealing from hate? yeah , I guess, Hate for stupid laws.

You, of course, are free to disagree, but I've seen it in those thirty years, and the things you quote - drunk driving, drug dealing, and any larceny - are all borne of resentment and anger. It's just a matter of how it's acted out - drunks take it out on themselves, and then endanger citizens; drug dealers hate the system into which they're always going to be denied entry, and so they build their own; people stealing money from other people hate the people who have the money.

You've got to look beyond the obvious, and examine what's behind all the actions. It's a complex and rich tapestry, and you quickly learn that simple assumptions will always get you in trouble.

In thirty years, I learned to dig, and I was always shocked at what I found.

where you would do anything for food. in your world there must be a lot of anger.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/liberaltshirts.htm

Murder is murder, assault is assault. The intentional killing of a human being by another is no less heinous if it was done for money vice racial or gender hated. I am not quite ready to accept what are essentially thought crimes.

Some media has played up the use of race enhancements and other media sources delight in pointing out that they only went one way. While I doubt anything I see in a newspaper/magazine/on line, we don't need any more capriciousness in the justice system.

when a swastika is painted on a synagogue. as opposed to a 'tag' being painted on a wall or bus. It is not just vandalism in these cases, and should be punished more severely. Thought crime? In this case it is the thought that matters.

(edited for spelling)

The actual statues don't mention "hate" at all. Nor do they mention any particular minority group. No particular emotion need be involved at all.

The laws simply make available additional penalties if prosecutors can prove a crime was "substantially motivated" by certain issues (such as race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.).



Here's a well-encapsulated summary that dispells some popular myths about "hate crimes".

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2005/01/should-we-repeal-hate-crimes-laws.html


"First: The principle of proportionality in sentencing is a fundamental aspect of criminal law. Society has always chosen to punish crimes more or less harshly according to the culpability of the perpetrator, particularly the level of harm he inflicts. This is why, in the case of the death of another person, someone may face charges ranging from first-degree murder to third-degree manslaughter.

Take, for instance, the case of an elderly woman smothered in her sleep. If the perpetrator is her nephew eager to collect on his inheritance, then he is likely to face first-degree murder charges and a possible death penalty. If it is a begrieved husband carrying out the wishes of a dying Alzheimer's victim, then prosecutorial discretion comes into play. Which do you think is more worthy of a harsh sentence?

The principle responsible for the difference here is mens rea, or the state of mind of the accused. Mens rea involves both intent and motive. Harsher sentences traditionally have been assigned to crimes committed with intentions and motivations considered more harmful to society at large."

(snip)

"Everyone has a race. Everyone has a creed. Everyone has beliefs about religion. Everyone has an ethnic origin, and for that matter a sexual orientation. As such, the laws are written to protect everyone equally from criminals who select them intentionally because of their racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual identity. There are no "protected classes" or "special victims" per se, only prosecutable motives."









(Personally, I think the catchy nickname causes more confusion than it's worth.)

Monterey is not close to Mill Valley. I wonder if the student lived there for awhile.

Other publications including Marin Independent Journal say Marin County Sheriff. Link to this story is from a Santa Rosa (Sonoma County) TV station and thy made a mistake.

What's more, we fought the homophobia fight thirty-five years ago and won. The town is still very liberal, but I bet dimes to doughnuts these attacks are fueled by this damn Christian fundamentalist movement. Bank on it.

the rest of us the hell alone?? Oh, I forgot-- their way isn't to mend fences, it's to be as ugly and belligerent as possible.

:nuke:

who feels the need to harass the gay kid.

Bet the whole damn school knows who it is, too.

Gay bashing erupts again at Tam High

By Jennifer Gollan,
IJ reporter

Lesbian teacher an apparent new target of vandal

A new rash of anti-gay hate crimes at
Tamalpais High School left the epithets
"die fag" scrawled on the car of a
17-year-old student, and "fag class" on
the classroom door of a lesbian teacher.

The incidents follow at least six similar
incidents which began in November last
year, perhaps the most brazen of which
involved graffiti that read "die fag" in 2
1/2-foot letters on the wall of the Mill
Valley school's Keyser Hall.

No arrests have been made and police
have "no strong leads," Capt. James
Wickham of the Mill Valley Police
Department said yesterday. The Marin
County Sheriff's Office is also working on
the investigation.

Attempts to reach the student, who police
have said belongs to a gay and lesbian
organization at the school, were
unsuccessful yesterday.

But Lisa Miller, one of two science
teachers who share the room tagged with
graffiti last week, said she was outraged
she might have been the target of one of
the recent incidents.

"It's possible it's me," said Miller, a
teacher at the school since 1996. "I'm a
lesbian. Although I don't wear a button, it
is fairly common knowledge.

"It is amazing to me that whoever is
doing this is so ignorant and bigoted, but
yet smart enough not to make the kind of
mistakes not to get them caught yet."

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http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24407~2742335,00.html

I graduated from Tam the year before they formed the Gay-Straight Alliance and the school seemed very tolerant, but then again, nobody was "out" then, and I'm a girl so I probably didn't hear most of the more disparaging remarks. It was basically a well known fact that at least two of the teachers were gay, even though they weren't "out."

I'm still thinking that this is one or a few students, and most of the school is horrified by it.