Why Hate? Demand Equality

I was reading an article today about a gang in New York called the Latin King Goonies who recently attacked two teens of 17 and a 30 year old man, all because they decided that these individuals were gay.

The details of the attack are pretty disgusting, beating, torture, sodomy with a small baseball bat and plunger handle, burning people with cigarettes, robbery, false imprisonment, theft etc.

But what really struck me more than anything is that these gang members are so stupid they would risk their lives over a hate crime.  I certainly understand why some crime happens, for example, you rob a bank to get money to spend on your drug habit or whatever else floats your boat.  In many crimes there is a clear end result where if you avoid capture you have gained something.

In this case, the gang members, most of whom have already been caught, are going to be charged with a series of very serious crimes, and just for good measure the crimes will be noted as 'hate crimes' which ups the ante somewhat in the prison sentencing.

For such a brutal attack that is also a hate crime, some of these 'Goonies' are going to spend the best part of the next ten to twenty years in prison, where they will most likely become a lot more familiar with hanging out with a bunch of men and sodomy.

And that's the bit I find hard to understand.  There was never an up side to this crime.  A night of hurting another human being (or three), and then many years in prison.  Who knows, the fact they were in a gang, and this was such a serious hate crime could see them locked up for life.  What a tragic waste of a set of lives.

It is so sad how so many people have so much hate in them that they are literally willing to risk life in prison in exchange for lashing out at a person who is not like them.

Unfortunately, until we learn to accept gay people, and afford them the same rights as EVERY American, this kind of attack will continue.  When we take a group of people, and label them as less than human, suddenly almost any kind of action can be justified.  Everyone needs to play their part to change society from parents to teachers, police to the government.  Religious leaders too need to stop spewing their messages of hate.  Most sections of the Bible used to justify anti-gay sentiment also instruct us to stone people to death for various frivolous 'crimes.'

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