SavvySugar

Hate crimes bill goes to Obama for signature

PinkNC — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:46:50 -0700

Fri October 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate passed groundbreaking legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.

The expanded federal hate crimes law now goes to President Obama's desk. Obama has pledged to sign the measure, which was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill.

President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure.

The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year.

"Knowing that the president will sign it, unlike his predecessor, has made all the hard work this year to pass it worthwhile," said Judy Shepard, board president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation named for her son. "Hate crimes continue to affect far too many Americans who are simply trying to live their lives honestly, and they need to know that their government will protect them from violence, and provide appropriate justice for victims and their families."

Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate-crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality.

Attorney General Eric Holder has asserted that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, as opposed to the prosecution of speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs.
Holder called Thursday's 68-29 Senate vote to approve the defense spending bill that included the hate crimes measure "a milestone in helping protect Americans from the most heinous bias-motivated violence."

"The passage of this legislation will give the Justice Department and our state and local law enforcement partners the tools we need to deter and prosecute these acts of violence," he said in a statement.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called the measure "our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."

"Too many in our community have been devastated by hate violence," Solmonese said in a statement. "We now can begin the important steps to erasing hate in our country."

This month, Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians.

"Despite the progress we've made, there are still laws to change and hearts to open," he said during his address at the dinner for the Human Rights Campaign. "This fight continues now, and I'm here with the simple message: I'm here with you in that fight."

Among other things, Obama has called for the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. He also has urged Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and pass the Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act.

The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage, for federal purposes, as a legal union between a man and a woman. It allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages. The Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act would extend family benefits now available to heterosexual federal employees to gay and lesbian federal workers.

More than 77,000 hate-crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 and 2007, or "nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee in June.

The FBI, Holder added, reported 7,624 hate-crime incidents in 2007, the most current year with complete data.
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*The Department of Justice
* http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/October/09-ag-1135.html
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Hate crimes bill goes to Obama for signature

PinkNC — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:44:59 -0700

Fri October 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate passed groundbreaking legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.

The expanded federal hate crimes law now goes to President Obama's desk. Obama has pledged to sign the measure, which was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill.

President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure.

Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate-crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called the measure "our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."

"Too many in our community have been devastated by hate violence," Solmonese said in a statement. "We now can begin the important steps to erasing hate in our country."

This month, Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians.

The FBI, Holder added, reported 7,624 hate-crime incidents in 2007, the most current year with complete data.
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Major Cities' Plummeting Crime Rates Mystifying

stephley — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:39:48 -0700

Violent crime has plummeted in the Washington area and in major cities across the country, a trend criminologists describe as baffling and unexpected.

The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track for fewer killings this year than in any other year in at least four decades. Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities are also seeing notable reductions in homicides.

"Experts did not see this coming at all," said Andrew Karmen, a criminologist and professor of sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

In the District and Prince George's County, homicides are down about 17 percent this year.

Criminologists have different theories about why crime is down so much, although many agree that the common belief that crime is connected to the economy is false.

Whatever the cause, police across the region are taking credit for the drop.

"Everybody wants to beat us up when it goes up, so we'll take credit for it when it goes down," D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.

She said police are able to target specific locations or types of crime and policing is so high-tech that investigators are analyzing crime minute-by-minute and have greater ability to attack crime before it happens.

In Prince George's, for example, the department's top commanders get mobile phone updates on crimes and 911 calls every 15 minutes.

In New York, when someone is killed, police send a mobile data center to a neighborhood, allowing police on the scene to listen to 911 calls and immediately search databases that list the names of everyone in a certain building who is on parole.

In the District, the department creates a weekly "Go-Go report," which details where and when home-grown bands are playing, because go-go concerts often bring together rival gangs, causing violence, Lanier said. There is also a weekly gang report that tells officers which gangs or crews are feuding that week.

Armed with that information, police can better predict where crimes might happen and take measures to prevent them.

The District is on track to have fewer killings than in any year since 1964, when the population was about 760,000 and Vietnam War protests were just beginning.

In the years since, the city has struggled at times with civil unrest, the arrival of crack cocaine and the rise of street gangs. In 1991, the District was known as the murder capital of the United States, recording 479 that year. This year, there have been 79.

Last summer, the city was struggling with so much violence in the Trinidad neighborhood that police set up military-style neighborhood roadblocks and stopped people from entering unless they had a "legitimate reason." The checkpoints were so restrictive that they were ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

This year, there have been several high-profile shootings in the District, including last week's late-afternoon killing of armed suspect Kellen Anthony White by the Capitol Police about a block from the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Also, a security officer, Stephen T. Johns, was killed last month during the lunch hour at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. An alleged white supremacist has been charged.

But Lanier said there has been a turnaround in violence this year. She pointed to a better relationship between the department and the community as a factor, saying it has helped get more violent repeat offenders off the streets. She said tips from the community have been flowing faster than ever, due in part to patrol officers knowing their beats and developing connections in the community.

Last year, the department paid about $500,000 in reward money for tips that led to arrests and convictions, double the amount in 2007. This year, detectives have closed about 70 percent of homicide cases.

"The community is giving us more information than ever," Lanier said. "They're used to seeing the same cop in the neighborhood every day. They feel comfortable. They have a connection to that officer. They know that officer isn't going to burn them."

Burning them, she said, would be to take information and not act on it, leaving sources to believe police are corrupt or lazy.

She also said she has torn down walls in the department so that homicide detectives talk more often with beat officers, sharing vital information.

Violent crime is also down in some of Washington's other large suburbs, including Montgomery and Fairfax counties.

Montgomery has recorded six homicides this year, putting it on track to have its lowest total since 1986.

In Prince George's, violence had been steadily rising since the 1990s, when the county started absorbing spillover crime from the District. But this year, crime is at a 20-year low, and homicides are down almost 17 percent.

Police Chief Roberto L. Hylton said that since he took over the department in September, there has been a more defined mission about how to attack crime.

He identified car thefts as one of the county's major problems and a "gateway" crime, meaning if criminals get away with stealing a car, they sometimes become emboldened and begin committing more daring acts. In 2004, about 18,500 cars were stolen in the county, more than in all of Virginia.

Since then, the department has focused on arresting car thieves and educating the public about protecting their cars, and the number of car thefts has shrunk by half.

"We have a very detailed and comprehensive strategy. We are triaging our community," Hylton said.

He said the homicide closure rate is about 70 percent, which has helped get many criminals off the streets.

"If you come into Prince George's County and you commit a murder, we're going to track you down and arrest you and lock you up," Hylton said.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum, said the drop in homicides this year is notable, especially considering the weather.

"This does come at an important time," he said. "We're midway through summer, and summer is when you see the most significant increase in street violence. Departments have had to be more strategic in terms of gangs and hot spots."

Wexler said that crime isn't down everywhere. Baltimore and Dallas are among some cities experiencing a higher number of killings compared with last year.

Gary LaFree, a criminology professor at the University of Maryland, said it has taken police decades to figure out how to effectively target crime.

"In the '60s, crime was like an act of God, like a tornado or earthquake," LaFree said. "Where policing has changed is that we've gotten the idea this is a problem we created and there are human solutions to it. Obviously, crime is not randomly distributed. It is connected to hot spots in cities and other areas."

LaFree and others agree that crime doesn't automatically go up when the economy is poor. Property crime is also trending down in many jurisdictions, including the District, Prince George's and Montgomery. The FBI reported last week that bank robberies across the country fell in the first quarter of the year, with 1,498 reported, compared with 1,604 in the first quarter of 2008.

Criminologists point to the Great Depression in the 1930s as a time of relatively low crime compared with the Roaring Twenties, when the country experienced more violence.

Lanier said that despite the good news, there's not much celebrating going on among police chiefs across the country.

"We're afraid to relax in any way and say crime is down," she said. "We tend to not talk about it much because we know how quick things can turn. What's successful today, tomorrow can turn on a dime."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR200907...

Urgent, full-court press for 'hate crimes' bill

Cassandra57 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:35:30 -0700

Regardless of what you think about any particular issue, freedom of speech, thought and public discussion is critical to American life.
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* PUBLIC POST *

Urgent, full-court press for 'hate crimes' bill
Vote looms on legislation that could outlaw preaching on homosexuality
Posted: April 27, 2009
11:38 pm Eastern

By Drew Zahn

House Democrats have announced a vote could come as early as tomorrow on a "hate crimes" bill that supporters admit might allow federal officials to prosecute Christians who speak out against homosexual behavior.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, or H.R. 1913, passed through committee last week, and according to the Weekly Leader published by the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the bill joins 14 others that could be brought to the floor for a vote sometime between noon tomorrow and the end of the week.

Meanwhile, advocates for the bill are engaged in a strong push to see it passed.

The Human Rights Campaign, which calls itself the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – or LGBT – civil rights organization, has designated April 27-29 for a national call-in campaign, urging supporters to contact Congress and pressure the bill's passage.

"We need more calls to Members of Congress, and we need them right away," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "It has been ten long years and tens of thousands more victims since the Matthew Shepard Act was first introduced in Congress. We are poised for a presidential signature this year, but lies from the radical right could easily derail our efforts."

A number of groups – including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council on La Raza, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Association of People with Disabilities, among others – announced formation of a national coalition to urge Congress to pass H.R. 1913.

One of the coalition members, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, announced last week that it has sent letters to all 435 members of the House of Representatives in support of the bill.

Tom Strode of the Baptist Press, however, reports that H.R. 1913 "adds 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' to the current classes – including race, religion and national origin – protected from hate crimes," a measure that worries many people of faiths that deem LGBT sexual behavior as immoral.

When a nearly identical plan was developed in the last Congress, Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., admitted during a hearing on the bill it could be used to prosecute pastors merely for preaching against homosexuality under the premise that they could be "inducing" violence in someone.

WND WorldNetDaily
Urgent, full-court press for 'hate crimes' bill
Vote looms on legislation that could outlaw preaching on homosexuality
Posted: April 27, 2009
11:38 pm Eastern

By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Meanwhile, advocates for the bill are engaged in a strong push to see it passed.

One of the coalition members, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, announced last week that it has sent letters to all 435 members of the House of Representatives in support of the bill.

(Story continues below)

The bill ultimately failed then because President Bush determined it was unnecessary – the crimes banned in the legislation already are addressed by other laws – and it probably was unconstitutional.

"The federal hate crimes bill is bad news for everyone," said Brad Dacus of Pacific Justice Institute, who testified in Congress against the bill two years ago.

"Instead of treating all crime victims equally, it creates a caste system where select groups, such as gays and lesbians, are given greater priority in the criminal justice system. This is not progress; it is political correctness. In other nations and states, the adoption of hate crimes legislation has been the first step toward widespread suppression of speech and ideas critical of homosexuality," he said.

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel has spoken out against H.R. 1913 a number of times.

"As has proved to be true in both Europe and Canada, this Orwellian piece of legislation is the direct precursor to freedom killing and speech chilling 'hate speech' laws. It represents a thinly veiled effort to ultimately silence – under penalty of law – morally, medically and biblically based opposition to the homosexual lifestyle," he said.

Barber said the 14th Amendment already provides that victims of violent crimes are afforded equal protection under the law "regardless of sexual preference or proclivity."

"If passed, H.R. 1913 will change all that. It overtly and, most likely, unconstitutionally, discriminates against millions of Americans by granting federally preferred status, time and resources to individuals who define their identity based upon aberrant sexual behaviors (i.e.,'gay' and lesbian 'sexual orientation' or cross-dressing 'gender identity')," he said.

He also said there is "zero evidence" suggesting homosexuals do not get equal protection now.

"In fact, you need only look to the most famous 'hate crime' of all – Matthew Shepard – for proof. Although the evidence determined that Shepard's murder was not a 'hate crime' by definition (a misconception still widely propagated by the homosexual lobby, the media and liberal lawmakers), the two thugs who committed the crime nonetheless received life in prison – and rightfully so. (Shepard's murder turned out to be the end result of a robbery for drug money gone from bad to horrible)," he said.

Barber said likewise the murderer of Mary Stachowicz, a devout Catholic grandmother brutally killed by a homosexual for sharing the Bible with him, also was given a life sentence.

"The system worked in both cases and both victims received equal justice under the law apart from any discriminatory 'hate crimes' legislation," he said.

Barber cited FBI statistics showing there were about 1.4 million violent crimes in the U.S. in 2007, but only 1,512 were presumed to be "hate crimes." And two-thirds of those involved claims of "hateful" words, touching and shoving.

Under the specifications of the law, a Christian needn't touch a homosexual to face charges, he noted.

"If the homosexual merely claims he was subjectively placed in 'apprehension of bodily injury' by the Christian's words then, again, the Christian can be thrown in prison for a felony 'hate crime,'" he said.

WND reported previously that the plan was introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who said, "The bill only applies to bias-motivated violent crimes and does not impinge public speech or writing in any way."

Section 10 of the act states, "Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."

However, critics cite United States Code Title 18, Section 2, as evidence of how the legislation could be used against people who merely speak out against homosexuality. It states: Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.

Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, warned Christians to speak up before the legislation passes. He said they are acting like the proverbial frog in a slowly heating kettle that boils to death.

"They need to wake up and take action to oppose this threat to religious liberty."

Concerned individuals may contact representatives by calling (202) 224-3121 or by searching for their last names in the U.S. House of Representatives database.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=96331

Obama’s New Nuremberg Defense, Obama’s War Crimes Hypocrisy

Grandpa — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:58:33 -0700

Obama’s New Nuremberg DefenseObama’s War Crimes Hypocrisy
Posted by Shannon Love on April 22nd, 2009 (All posts by Shannon Love)

So, Obama is thinking about prosecuting lawyers for war crimes.

Frankly, I doubt that Obama will actually go through with it. Leftists like to talk big about how horrible and murderous America’s military and intelligence services are, but history has shown that they are just hypocritical cowards when it comes to acting on their hysterical rhetoric. John Kerry started his political career with this statement made under oath before congress in 1971:

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command….

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

A shocking allegation but absolutely standard for the pro-communist-victory leftist of the day. It’s important to remember that for Kerry and the rest of the 25% most leftward part of the American political spectrum, America’s fight against communism in Indochina wasn’t just foolhardy or doomed but actively evil. America was engaged in an evil imperialistic war to prevent the people of Indochina from embracing the enlightened communist future they desired. Since America was a Nazi-like country that would attack and oppress innocent people, it followed that American soldiers would use Nazi-like tactics.

This incredibly negative view of the American military and America itself wasn’t the worst thing about the far Left in the ’70s. The worst thing was that it turned out they made all these allegations and abandoned the people of Indochina to communist mass murder purely as a cynical tactic to gain political power. When they could no longer milk any additional benefit from slandering America, they suddenly discovered that “crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command” weren’t that big of a deal.

The Left won sweeping control of the federal government in 1976, in the wake of Watergate, so a naive observer who believed in leftist sincerity would assume that they would move aggressively to root out the evil that had spread throughout the American military, intelligence services and government in general. It would be insane to leave lieutenants who started their careers committing war crimes on a “day-to-day basis” in the military so that 30 years later they could rise into the ranks of top generals.

Instead, they dropped the war crimes allegations as quickly as they could and moved to protect people like John Kerry from prosecution from the many laws he’d broken. (Kerry was a naval reserve officer at the time he made his slanders. If he actually had evidence of crimes he had a legal duty to report the specifics to national and international authorities. If he didn’t actually have evidence then he was responsible for acts against the good order of the military. Either way, he was headed for prison.) In the process they oh-so magnanimously included an open ended pardon for just about any war crime anyone may have committed in Indochina. How big of them!

Magnanimity had nothing to do with the pardons. The leftists knew that following through on prosecutions for war crimes would have revealed virtually all of the charges to be false. The American public would have seen the leftists as the cynical hypocrites they were, and people like John Kerry could have never become senators or run for the presidency.

Obama was mentored by these same leftists. From the beginning, he cynically exploited slanders against the current generation of Americans fighting the War on Terror to whip up support for him on the far Left. Now that he has power and following through on his slanders would cost some or all of that power, he will betray the far Left just as his mentors did.

I predict this theater will repeat itself every generation. Slandering the American military is a safe and easy way to engage in self-gratifying moral outrage. Leftists can prove how superior they are to everyone else by attacking people who can’t fight back. Then, when it comes time to lay their cards on the table, they can further prove their superiority with magnanimous pardons. It’s a no-lose strategy for them.

UN expert: US failing to properly probe war crimes

stephley — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:23:05 -0700

By FRANK JORDANS – 16 hours ago

GENEVA (AP) - An independent U.N. human rights investigator said Thursday that the United States is failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes committed by its soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although some cases are investigated and lead to prosecutions, others aren't or result in lenient sentences, said Philip Alston, the U.N. Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings.

"There have been chronic and deplorable accountability failures with respect to policies, practices and conduct that resulted in alleged unlawful killings - including possible war crimes - in the United States' international operations," Alston said in a report dated May 26 and published on a U.N. Web site.

A spokesman for the U.S. mission in Geneva, Dick Wilbur, said Alston's conclusions and recommendations would be reviewed closely.

"We support the independence and work of all U.N. special rapporteurs and meet regularly with those who examine issues in the U.S., including Mr. Alston," he said.

Alston, a New York University law professor, stressed he saw no evidence on a recent trip to Afghanistan that U.S. forces were committing "widespread" abuses or war crimes.

The U.S. military has conducted dozens of investigations into misconduct by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of which have resulted in trials and convictions.

But among numerous cases mentioned in the report, Alston cited that of Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, convicted of negligent homicide in the death of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an Iraqi general who had turned himself in to military authorities. Mowhoush suffocated after his head was covered with a sleeping bag and an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. Welshofer was fined and ordered reprimanded, without jail time.

The U.N. investigator raised the case with U.S. authorities but said he has yet to receive a response.

Alston also criticized the lack of solid statistics on civilian casualties in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Figures collected by the U.S. military on Iraqi civilians killed at checkpoints because they were mistaken for suicide bombers had resulted in changes to military procedure that saved lives, he said.

Alston, an Australian, also examined alleged instances of illegal executions inside the United States, and recommended a systematic review of the death penalty in those states that apply it.

Like other U.N. human rights investigators, Alston is independent and unpaid, but his expenses are covered by the United Nations. His reports have no legal impact, but serve to highlight what he sees as abuses. He is reporting next week on Brazil, Afghanistan, Kenya and Central African Republic.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i35932dBSOrAFwOKt2xzaC...
PDF version of Alston's report: http://bit.ly/9Yec2

Wyclef Jean asks Haitians to give up crime

justingirl1989 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:08:07 -0700

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - In a radio ad sponsored by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Grammy Award-winning musician Wyclef Jean is asking his fellow citizens to give up crime and work to improve the country.

"If you love Wyclef, that means you love Haiti. So you should not be raping women, kidnapping people and children, because there can be no excuse for doing so," Jean said in Creole in a short ad run several times a day by local stations in Haiti.

"I reject these evil practices," said the 35-year-old Jean, who also urged Haitian men to respect and protect women's rights.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas has battled decades of political upheaval, dictatorship, military rule and violence.

Haitian police and U.N. authorities have noted a rise in crime over the past several weeks and are trying to counter a wave of kidnappings and crimes perpetrated by gangs in the capital and some provincial areas.

Official figures show 36 people were kidnapped for ransom in Port-au-Prince during March, and about 30 in February. The number had dropped to fewer than 20 a month.

Fred Blaise, a spokesman for the U.N. police, said Jean's popularity among Haitians from across the social spectrum may positively influence youngsters involved in crime, and could motivate others to stay out of trouble.

"All kinds of Haitians, the good guys as well as the bad guys, have a lot of appreciation for Wyclef for what he represents as a Haitian," Blaise told Reuters on Sunday.

"So they would be more likely to be receptive to Wyclef's message because they are all proud of him," he said.

Jean, who first gained fame as a member of the Grammy-winning hip-hop trio The Fugees, enjoys enormous respect in Haiti. Last year, he was appointed by Haitian President Rene Preval to serve as a roving ambassador to improve the nation's image abroad.

source: reuters.com

Colo. court delivers nation's first transgender hate crime verdict

T S — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:27:32 -0700

A 32-year-old man has been found guilty of first degree murder of a trans woman in the US state of Colorado.

For the first time a 2005 law that added protections for people based on sexual orientation, including "transgender status," to the state's "bias-motivated crimes" statute, was used.

Allen Andrade was sentenced to life in prison without parole, the mandatory penalty for first-degree murder in the state.

The jury took just two hours to reach their verdict that he murdered Angie Zapata. He beat the 18-year-old to death in her apartment.

The pair had met on a dating website and spent the night together. He claimed he flew into a rage when he "discovered" she had been born male.

Her body was found hidden under a blanket at her apartment in Greeley by her sister.

Ms Zapata began living as a woman when she was 16 and had wanted to dress in a feminine style since the age of seven.

After Andrade was sentenced his victim's mother said:

"The one thing he can never take away is the love and memories that me and my children will have of my baby, my beautiful, beautiful baby."

Andrande told police he had hit Ms Zapata twice in the head with a fire extinguisher and thought he had "killed it" before hitting her again as she tried to stand up.

He then struck her a third time with the fire extinguisher and also took her purse, keys and phone before fleeing in her 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser.

Was anyone else following this? It's definitely brought the topic of hate crimes back to the news. Some are saying it's a milestone for transgender advocacy, others worry about first amendment issues.

Source

Johnny Depp’s mob movie becomes real crime scene

justingirl1989 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:18:03 -0700

Johnny Depp’s new mobster movie became the scene of a real crime following the arrest of a juvenile who is accused of shooting a gun near the set.

The 45-year-old star was filming the crime flick Public Enemies in Chicago, Illinois when he narrowly evaded the incident, which occurred just 30 minutes before the actor was scheduled to arrive.

According to police, the shooting occurred at approximately 12:30 am on Friday near the set on the city’s South Side.

No one was injured in the incident.
http://icydk.com/2008/06/23/johnny-depps-mob-movie-becomes-real-crime-sc...

High Crimes

Princesskitty22 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:24:15 -0700

I'll admit, I have a bit of a fascination with the macabre. I've always been interested in stories about crime, serial killers, criminal profiling, forensics, ect. I would love to post stories about famous crimes and serial killers, but I'm hesitant to do so. My biggest concern is the photos. I wouldn't want to leave them out entirely, but they can be graphic and somewhat gruesome. I could get around this, however, by providing a link to the more disturbing ones rather than publicly posting them. So, I'd like your opinion. It seems to me that there are a lot of people interested in these sick individuals, given the popularity of shows such as Forensic Files and 48 Hours and such, but I want to be sure.

Would you be interested in reading about some of history's most deranged killers? If so, would you be offended by crime scene photos, ect? Would you be comfortable reading the stories, but would rather have links or warnings about how graphic the photos are, so that you could choose to view them depending of the descriptions?

Just leave a comment to give me your thoughts on this subject. Thanks.