Will Atlanta Prosecutors Go Bloodthirsty in Charging Teens Who Cut Up Pride Flag?
There's More from the People's Republic of Atlanta...
When will it end? A group of teen boys is facing years in prison for stealing a couple of “pride flags” from an Atlanta gay bar and cutting them up. Stealing private property and destroying it is vandalism, at least, and anyone who does it should be prepared to pay the price.
But people aren’t talking about charging these minor boys with vandalism or mischief. The media, at least, definitely hopes prosecutors will throw the book at them for “hate crime” charges. It’s almost too much to have to type those words, as the very idea of a “hate crime” is flatly unconstitutional, though many states keep prosecuting using these unusual punishments. Stealing a piece of cloth does not, actually, become a more heinous crime simply because it’s a “gay” item,” or a “black” item.
What’s more? It’s not illegal to “hate.” It’s unlikely in the extreme that everyone who objects to the queer rainbow-ification of America actually “hates” “minorities” the way the phrase suggests. Few people, annoyed though they may be with the antics of sexual minorities, actually want to hang them or murder them. The incident took place on June 24 in the wee hours of the morning. Allegedly, six teen boys were caught on surveillance cameras swiping the flags from local gay bars. They can be seen riding scooters around on top of the painted-on-the-road “rainbow crosswalk” while they cut the stolen flags with knives.
You can see the video in this tweet from Collin Rugg. It’s hard to look at this 24 seconds of tape and conclude that these teens ought to face years in prison. And that’s what would happen if prosecutors decided to use the (again, unconstitutional) “hate crime enhancement” on top of whatever crime they charge the boys with. A “hate crime enhancement” could add fines and up to 12 years in prison.
Fair minded people can only hope the local prosecutors aren’t overly zealous. But it looks like they’re getting ready to be…