Thank You Mr.

Kennedy-let's punish the victims again

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Protection Act of 2009 sounds really good. At least
the name does. But is it what it seems?

First, let's examine some of the history of this bill.

The Sad Story of Matthew Shepard.

The bill is borne out of the murder of Matthew Shepard. In 1998, Shepard was killed by
Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson in what was billed as a “hate crime” targeting
Shepard because he was gay.

But was it? The Lefts' history of using sad circumstances to create a legal bellybutton is
nothing new. They did it with Roe v. Wade to push abortion through and create public
acceptance for abortion and they did it with Matthew Shepards' untimely death.

According to testimony, McKinney, who was coming down from a five-day

methamphetamine high, Henderson, and their girlfriends, picked up Shepard with the
intention of robbing him. But McKinney beat Shepard so badly, that they decided to dump
him and just take his belongings.

Shepard was not a total stranger to McKinney and Henderson. They had seen him at the
Fireside Lounge, and pretended to be gay themselves as a “lure” to get Shepard into their
truck. Shepard was apparently looking for a sexual encounter.

Shepard's case was immediately sensationalized in the news, even before he passed away
days after his bloody body was found tied to a split-rail fence.

One reporter from the Casper Star-Tribune was even noted as saying that Shepard would be
the “new poster child for gay rights.”

Shepard has his own demons, including having been raped while on a trip to Morocco
several years earlier; a recent diagnosis of HIV; and depression to the extent that he was
battling suicidal ideology. And Shepard also battled with his own involvement in the local
drug scene.
The night McKinney and Henderson saw Shepard at the lounge, Shepard was well dressed
and the couple assumed he had money. A plan to rob a local drug deal had fallen through
earlier that night, and Shepard seemed an easy mark to the duo.

The three men piled into the front seat of the vehicle and Shepard reached over, according
to McKinney, and grabbed his leg. McKinney's response, heightened by McKinney's condition,
brought a swift and extreme response. McKinney hit Shepard with the pistol he had been
planning to use to rob Shepard. When Shepard gave over only $30.00, McKinney's rage grew
and the beating continued.

This horrific crime should never have happened. But was it a “gay bashing?” It hardly seems
to be one if one takes all of the facts into account. Especially the fact that, though
McKinney denied it, his friends believed he was bisexual.

The Bill.
The bill in question not only has a history not matching it's purposes, it offers financial
incentives to local law enforcement to possibly engage in making hate crimes where no
hate crimes may exist, or may only be part of the equation in a criminal act.

But even worse is the prioritizing of crimes, crimes which could be possibly more heinous in
their action, but which will not see the same prosecutorial zeal as an alleged hate crime.

The Sadder Story of Jesse Dirkhising.

The sadistic torture and subsequent death of Jesse Dirkhising was

barely a blip on the media radar. The thirteen-year-old boy was trying
to save up money to fix up a truck. Two men, Joshua McCabe Brown
and Davis Don Carpenter hired Dirkhising to work in their salon.

Dirkhising's parents were tolerant types, never suspecting that their

friends, Brown and Carpenter, had some dubious proclivities.
Carpenter would make the 60-mile round trip to pick up Jesse to spend
the weekend.
The actual assault lasted around five hours during which time Brown sodomized Jesse,
who's hands were tied to a baseball bat, mouth stuffed with underwear and taped with duct
tape, and bottom elevated with pillows.

Browns' implements included his fingers, a frozen banana, a urine enema laced with
amitryptiline, a cucumber, and an Eckrich sausage. This Brown did while Carpenter stood
nearby, masturbating. Carpenter had Brown duct tape the cucumber inside Jesse's anus
while the duo took a lunch break and went the the kitchen and made sandwiches. It was
during this break that Jesse suffocated to death.

Why didn't the world scream about this brutal murder? Perhaps because Dirkhising, who was
young and vulnerable, was being portrayed by Brown and Carpenter as a “willing victim.”
Brown considered Jesse to be his “on the side” lover and testified that Jesse had given
Brown oral sex from his first weekend visit with them. Brown admitted to sodomizing Jesse
the night of the assault by first setting a romantic stage: candlelight and rose petals. After
that was when “the game” (as Brown called it) went south.

Carpenter wasn't casual in this either. He had written notes about how to “sedate”
children; had collected child sex videos and even talked about wanting to have sex with
dogs.
One of Carpenter's notes to Brown referenced a little neighbor girl:

“I saw your 10-year-old blonde whore this morning... her bus comes by at 7:20 or 7:30...
Keep an eye on her and catch the first opportunity to talk to her- In the back window &
whammo! Oh yeah!”

The Dilemma.
H.R.1913 doesn't recognize the brutality perpetrated on young Jesse because it wasn't a
“hate crime” against homosexuals, rather, it was a brutal crime perpetrated BY
homosexuals. Yet one has to wonder if Jesse's death was any less heinous than that of
Matthew Shepherd?
“Hate” is an emotion which may- or may not- preclude an action. And it is often an
emotion credited to a person or group without any verifiable evidences. In fact, it's judging
an emotion or a thought based on an action. But is that adequate?

No. It isn't. Intent has to be determined by malice of forethought. McKinney and Henderson
were not looking for a gay guy specifically to bash because they hated gays. They were
looking for a vulnerable person, who had money, whom they could lure off under any ruse
that they thought could work. They picked a grown man, who made the grown up decision
to get into their vehicle.

In the case of Jesse Dirkhising, two grown men decided to use a boy for “sex games.”
Whether the boy was gay or not is irrelevant. Whether he was then willing or had previously
been willing to permit himself to be sexually used, is likewise irrelevant. A teen cannot
make a grown up decision like this one.

Hate crimes legislation detracts from the seriousness of other crimes and other crimes to
gain media and national attention. But since when was one murder less important than
another? When is one vandalism less important?

Recently the church I attend has undergone a spate of vandalism. Included in the vandalism
is the spray painting of the word OBAMA in four areas on the outside of our church. Is this a
hate crime since Obama is black and my pastor is white?

And what about the elderly woman who was savagely attacked by two black youths who
beat her about the head for a whopping ten dollars? Is her assault less important because
she's just an old lady?

Our leadership isn't acting on all six cylinders on this one and we need to stop this insanity
before it's too late and your thoughts become illegal.