fox news

the people of fox say that the most he should be charged with is destruction of property or something like that

not by what i heard he brought it with him. his second time doing it.

Why would the talking heads on Fox suggest this is not a hate crime? The desecration of a religious object is usually motivated by hate in my experience. My son just had a swastika painted on his house and we had our garden Buddha stolen at Zen Center. It seems to me some people just do not have respect for differences of religious views they should have. And such actions are hurtful in the extreme. Motive is always a part of the assignment of criminal degree. So its not just stealing or destroying property, there is more to it than that.

Be well.

By your own words, usually, not always. In other words it can be said that it was not necessarily a hate crime since by you own definition it's usually not always.



That doesn't make it a crime just because there is no respect. Besides if it was his own book, why would it be a crime to trash it or flush it for that matter. I thought I could do what I wanted with my personal property. This sounds like that joke that you could go to jail for ripping off the tags from mattresses.

BALONEY, SC!

I love ya, man, but show me ONE instance where the religious right has asked for punishment for desecrating bibles, etc. It just ain't there.

I, too, would like a source, but I am sick of "the religious right" being castigated as something they aren't (such as this instance).

ok so arrest him for theft.

Unless he stole something or physically harmed someone he committed no crime at all, hate or otherwise. Defacing someone's property, theft, physical assault, etc are all crimes, but buying a book and flushing down a toilet is NOT A HATE CRIME!

Well, ok, maybe he could be charged with plugging the toilet.

It's really simple, none of the things you mention are crimes nor should they be. In this country there is no constitutional guarantee to not be angered by someone's actions, and this isn't a theocracy. As I already mentioned, unless one actually assaults someone else's property or person it ISN'T A CRIME.

Actually, burning a cross on someone's lawn or painting a swastika on their house is considered a hate crime (the crime being an assault or defacing of their personal property which is a crime in every state) . Flushing a book isn't even a crime let alone a hate crime.

Even writing some graffiti on someone's wall is considered a crime.

Well, I'll admit to not liking the idea, but I won't take away the right of people to do it. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean it should be illegal.



Considering that our soldiers were dying for the same people that were burning the American flag in the streets of Iraq at one point, what did you expect people to think or do? But then this is the same as thinking that someone did not accidentally do a specific something to you but then you really you made much fuse over nothing.



The only reason it's a big deal because we crap in toilets; had he thrown it in a river, under his bed or out a window of a moving car chances are there would have been very little if any fuzz about this. And as I said before first you said usually now you are being more certain about it. How do you know, for sure, that it was motivated by hate and not by a person playing a prank? Heck, if I was offered millions to burn a bible, rest a sure I would probably do it since it's just a book. The word of God is in me and so is God.

As a Catholic I would have expected my mom, grandmother or maybe even the Priest to be upset over the idea of desecrating a Bible, but I seriously doubt any of them would have demanded my head on a platter or even have me arrested. Sent to my room maybe, asking God for forgiveness most likely, jail? Please.