At what point does bullying a kid become bullying a "category of kid," i.e., a hate crime?
Ever since he was 12, Daniel Romano has cut a noticeable figure around Middle Village, a working class part of Queens. Mr. Romano, 20, who calls himself a Satanist, stands out, with his blue-tinted bouffant hairdo, his black clothing and fingernails, and the prominent crucifix, worn upside down. Mr. Romano has long been teased for dressing like a "gothic kid" or simply a "goth"...
But in recent weeks, two local teenagers began fixating on Mr. Romano, calling him names including "Satan worshiper," "baby sacrificer" and "hooker killer," the authorities say. On Sunday the verbal harassment turned into violence.
Violence that included blunt objects as weapons, and resulted in 12 stitches for Mr. Romano. The Queens DA has decided to prosecute this as a hate crime:
Prosecutors say they attacked Mr. Romano because of his religious beliefs: They thought he worshiped Satan. They were arraigned yesterday on charges of second-degree assault as a hate crime, possession of a weapon and aggravated harassment. The charges could carry prison terms of up to 15 years...
...An assistant district attorney, George J. Farrugia, said the defendants believed that Mr. Romano worshiped Satan and "over the last month and a half, they have had it in for this kid, and have been abusive."
Mr. Scarpinito's lawyer, Richard Leff, called the charges "an abuse of the hate crime status," and said his client had never been in trouble. Mr. Rotondi's lawyer, Sean A. McNicholas, said prosecutors were calling this a hate crime because of "politics and press."
"The kid is gothic with blue hair: He falls into a category of kid," Mr. McNicholas said. "At worst, this is a simple dispute between kids, not an attack on a minority. If the accusation was that he was black or Asian or Latino or Jewish, it's one thing...They see this as a religious practice. It's a dispute between kids, the same way you have the nerds, the jocks, the artsy kids and the teacher's pets. What's next? Someone being accused of attacking a preppie, or a nerd?"
This type of argument underscores the problem with "hate crime" legislation, I think, and that is: Where do you draw the line? Certainly, other hate crimes have involved religious practices; an attack on a synagogue would certainly fall under current hate crime boundaries.
I'm certainly not in favor of anyone attacking goths (or Satanists, for that matter). But I'm not in favor of hate crime legislation either, for three reasons. One, because of the difficulty in trying to establish state of mind at the time of the crime. Two, because of the preposterousness of focusing on whether the attackers were viewing the victim as a member of a hated group, rather than focusing on whether the attackers premeditated their crime and expected to cause as much harm as they did. And three, because of the potential abuse of such laws to ultimately punish people who only display hatred of a certain group, but who break no laws in doing so (I'm thinking of oppressive campus speech codes here).
Posted by kswygert at January 12, 2005 06:22 AM