A truckload of WTF

[misscam]

What the HELL is this?

Nevermind that on the streets of Crothersville, where I went tonight, everyone understands that Hall wasn't gay, a statement echoed by his family. The defendants' motivation for beating a man to death for hours and hours, then driving him out into a pasture and beathing him some more, is "gay panic". He came on to them, so they killed him.(...) Either Aaron Hall was brutally beaten to death because he was gay, or else his murderers are attempting to exhort a sick sympathy from homophobic jury members by portraying beating a man to death as a natural response to homosexuality.

...?!

Both of those possibilities are just so revolting it's hard to find the words. What the hell? I mean really, what the HELL? WTF on a hierto unknown height of WTF-scale? WHAT.

The descriptions of what they did to that guy is just chilling. Can you imagine the sort of horror he felt? That's just gruesome. It's bad enough they killed him, making his last hours horrying and painful? FAIL, FAIL, FAIL. And it's been largly ignored by the media. Way to go, media. Because Paris Hilton back-and-forth-to-jail is so much more newsworthy, right? Also, why the fuck does not Indiana have hate crime laws?

There's a legal theory for their argument. It's called the "gay panic defense," and it suggests that temporary insanity from exposure to homosexuality is a defense against murder. Matthew Shepard's killers tried to use it.

WHAT?! I did not know that about the Shepard case. I did not need to know that about the Shepard case. It's raising the already extremely high revolting factor to dizzying heights. What kind of defense is that? I'd sure like to see someone try to use the "het panic defense". That would go down swimmingly, I'm sure. Or trying to defend a murder with racism, that's totally acceptable, right? NO. Wrong, wrong, wrong. A Britannica Encyclopedia full of wrong.

Shit, it even has a Wikipedia article. Oh yeah, it's as bad as blaming the victim for, say, a rape. It's revolting, it's shitty and, read my lips, IT IS NOT THE VICTIM'S FAULT. This should be put down in stone in front of every Court ever, so that judges, juries, lawyers and defendants will always get reminded of it. And so that shitty, shitty attempts at defence like that of the the murders in this story gets the proper smack-down it deserves twice over.

So. Pass the link on if you want to spread some awareness of this story and the fate of Aaron Hall. I have, now I need to stop making my brain repeat "WHAT WHAT WHAT" every six seconds and feel less like taking a shower.

Comments

[everysecondtues.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that I know a lot of people in Indiana who don't think there should be any hate crime laws ("Why make hate crime laws when there's already a law against murder?" is the popular reasoning for this). I know a lot of intelligent, open-minded, amazing people in Indiana. (Sometimes I like to think I'm one of them.) But they are by no means the majority.

This doesn't change the fact that I am beyond horrified. Furthermore, it's boggling that none of the media had picked it up, that the state can live up to my pessimism.

As for the "gay panic" defense, I have no idea how that has ever worked. I just . . . it should make no sense to any rational human being.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I know in Scandinavia, we're used hate crime laws to go after people inciting hatred, not just the people acting on it.

Why hasn't the media covered it? Nevermind all the other implications of it, it sounds a grusome murder in its own right. I'd think that would earn *some* coverage.

Apparently, from reading about it, it has in some cases softened punishment by creating certain ideas in people's minds, even if a judge tries to smack it. Gah!

[everysecondtues.livejournal.com]

I know! I mean, you'd think they would at least cover the "murder" angle, right? Argghhh.

[witchqueenrat.livejournal.com]

They are a bit too busy covering Paris Hilton's stay in the clink.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

we're used hate crime laws to go after people inciting hatred, not just the people acting on it.

And that is the problem right there. There are a lot of hard-right evangelists who are screaming that passing hate laws would mean that their religion will be compromised. And they don't want to go to jail for spreading their hatred.

[everysecondtues.livejournal.com]

Argh, yes. If they passed something to punish people inciting this kind of hatred that inevitably finds someone who takes it to the point of violence, a bunch of people would be pissed off, especially in Indiana, where there are a lot of hard-right zealots.

[loquacis.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the Shepard case.

That was Fred Phelps first funeral "protest", Shepard was first.With Phelps' absolutely hateful "God hates gays" signs (and I'm phrasing it diplomatically), he went off to the Shepard funeral to inform the grieving family that Matthew "was in hell".

Nobody in the USA paid any attention to Phelps' hate speech until he decided that the military "was gay", and protested the military funerals too. The USA was quite okay with Phelps' actions regarding Shepard and later gay victims of crime.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Ah, Phelps, that limp dick of an excuse for a human being. I remember seeing the "monument" he wanted put up to mark Matthew's passing "into hell". He got a lot of attention here for his hateful spiel about the Swedish Royal family.

Total dickweed - sadly, though he is hateful in his ways, many in the US still kinda agree with him, in less hateful ways.

[marcasite.livejournal.com]

I remember this.

This is the one where Phelps went to the funeral with signs that said God hate Gays.

Seriously.

I still can not get over this article that you linked. It's actually horrifying and to your point thank God we got all that coverage of the Hilton chickie going in and out of jail. Yes, it's definitly along the same lines. O_o

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Fred Phelps, class act. He's like the little kid in kindergarten who kicked all the other kids on the shin so he could get some attention.

I'm so sick of hearing of Paris Hilton my brain starts a chorus of "Shuuuuut the fuck up shut the fuck up shut the fuck up" whenever I see her name. May she never end up in jail again so I don't have to hear more about it ARGH ARGH.

And yeah, that she gets attention rather than something like this? Rather sad statement about both the media and the world in general.

[marcasite.livejournal.com]

And the fact that you heard about Paris all the way in Norway is even sadder. And then to not hear about the shooting in Melbourne (here in the US) shows how sad the state of our love affair with "celebrity" is.

And I could've cared less if she went to jail ot stayed home. Who cares!?

Don't get me started on Phelps. Serious waste of space.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Well, at least she isn't in our news broadcasts, just certain gossip mags. That's bad enough, but at least more of a proper venue, as it were.

News from abroad aren't reported much in the US at all, though. I remember that from when I was there.

It's sad that Fred Phelps has his own tag at my LJ, innit? Turd.

Your icon be awesome, though.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Utterly off topic, but may I steal the kitty/Doctor icon?

[witchqueenrat.livejournal.com]

How about all the way in Bulgaria? Every evening news team here feels compelled to inform us of new developments on her case. Just as much time is devoted to her as to the case of the Bulgarian nurses imprisoned in Lybia on bogus charges of infecting kids with AIDS. Drives me nuts.

[marcasite.livejournal.com]

It makes me, being in the US, feel so uninformed about what is really happening in the world. I have to hit up the BBC to get the facts and here you are in Bulgaria and you get to hear the latest about our poor little rich girl who deserves none of the attention she receives.

*sigh*

And I did read about those nurses. No resolution yet, right?

[witchqueenrat.livejournal.com]

Lucky us, no? We also got to find out about Cruise and Holmes' expected bundle of joy today.

The Lybian Supreme Court just announced that they will be making their decision on July 11th. More time for the government to get more money from the EU.

[wickedelf.livejournal.com]

There's a legal theory for their argument. It's called the "gay panic defense," and it suggests that temporary insanity from exposure to homosexuality is a defense against murder

That's the most horrifying and ridiculous thing I've ever read. This is one of those times when I am totally ashamed of my country - allowing that to ever even be considered.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Playing on prejudices isn't just an American thing, though. Even if this is a particulary revolting example.

[moonburst.livejournal.com]

I think the reason why IN doesn't have hate crime laws is because it wants you to be crushed by the law for doing that to any human being. The fact that you mobbed a guy and killed him should totally get you KOed by the law, no matter if the victim was white, black, or gay or anything like that. That being said, IN does tend to crush you harder if you have done a hate crime, though there's not technically a hate crime law.

[denorios.livejournal.com]

Temporary insanity from gay panic? What the frickin' fuck? That's a legal defence in the US? That's allowed? That is so fucking insane. Gay fucking panic...

[spotts1701.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the "gay panic" defense - the last resort of the guilty is to blame the victim.

Like the "sleepwalking" defense or the "Twinkie" defense, it is ludicrous on its face. Unfortunately if you get the right panel of jurors, you can convince anyone of anything.

[evilstorm.livejournal.com]

Goddamnit, we really need a way to get a bigger audience for shit like this. Like putting it on Oprah or something.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

What. The. Fuck.

Sometimes I really hate humanity.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Can Gays then, use a Heterosexual Panic Attack defense when a heterosexual person comes onto them inciting them into temporary insanity for being exposed to them?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Of course not. Just as women aren't allowed to beat a man up even if he outright harasses her, much less gives an unwelcome come-on. And anyone who isn't white who whomps on someone else is a terrorist: somewhere in my list of blogs was a school case where white students beat up black ones and were just smacked on the wrist for disturbing the peace, but when the black students defended themselves from the next beatdown, the black students were charged with attempted murder.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Obviously, this means that I need to take over the country a lot sooner than I thought I would.

[siraj.livejournal.com]

Can I be your bodyguard? by the time you start the revolution, I'll have plenty of weaponry.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Yay minion! Sure! That'd be most welcomed.

[siraj.livejournal.com]

*grins, dusting off his asskicking jacket, complete with bloodstains from the last assholes he needed to stomp for the betterment of humanity*

[littlezink.livejournal.com]

I went to high school only 30 minutes from Bloomington, and sad as it is, this sort of prejudiced environment is what dominates a predominantly rural state.

You ask how Indiana could have no laws against this, but when I was a senior (way back in 1994) one of the neighboring towns, Jasonville, had a Ku Klux Klan recruitment billboard posted on main street. Heck, someone burned a cross in the front yard of the only African American family to move into our county....and I wonder why I was clawing to get out of the state...

[wintergreen126.livejournal.com]

And it's been largly ignored by the media.

i didn't know about this at all until now. i really can't believe it. argh. you turn on the news and you hear about all this stupid crap that has no real relevance, but you don't hear about stuff like this. incredible.

i know norway has hate crimes laws- what do they cover?

and i will pass on the link.

[waterfall8484]

Ok, I really have no words for this, so I'll just add my reaction to yours: WHAT!?! No offence to people from the US, but sometimes I'm really glad that I don't live there... OMFG.

[falena]

This is revolting. It's unbelievable.

[siraj.livejournal.com]

On behalf of my country, I'm sorry for our rampant acts of assgardenry.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go be violently ill over how awful my countrymen can be.

[canadian-kazz.livejournal.com]

I've got tears in my eyes after reading what they did to him. That is so horrible. There are no words...

I have family members who are gay. It just can't imagine anything like that happening to them. Killing people like that just because of their sexuality is like killing someone just because they were born into a different religion or whatever. No. Excuse.

And Hall may not have even been gay! It was just the cover they came up with! And no media coverage? WTF?! If it had been a woman who was beaten to death like that, the media would have been all over it.

ARGH! Is there any hope left in this world?

[laughingduchess.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting it. I'll be sending out some emails tomorrow and linking it all over the place.

What an absolute tragedy.

[little-baldwin.livejournal.com]

You think you're bloody angry, but you don't live in Indiana. How could I have not heard about this earlier? How is that possible?!

Oh, wait. I'll tell you how. I live in the northwestern part, next to Chicago. We're a world away from the farmers and hicks. And we're all pissed as shit, that our rural south didn't fucking do anything about this.

ANGRY.

[bamfer.livejournal.com]

What's most remarkable about this case is how little attention it has received nation wide, nay, it has garnered almost no attention in the Indiana state media either. I've only just seen your blog post about it today, else I'd have never heard of it either. Also barely reported was the severe beating of a black man in Indianapolis, Indiana (http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2007/06/nuvo-on-hate-crimes.html) (which fortunately did not end in death) by three white males, racially motivated, just a bare two or three weeks before Aaron Hall's beating death.

Sad to say, and unknown even to many Americans, but Indiana has a long history of racism, anti-semitism and intolerance towards minorities. Most people associate the Ku Klux Klan with the south, but the Klan and other hate groups still have a strong presence in Indiana. Back in the 1920's, the KKK controlled the state Republican Party, the governorship and much of the state legislature. Much of rural Indiana is especially white: in many counties and towns 97-98% of the population is classified as "white persons not-Hispanic". While the KKK is no longer has a major presence or any real political power, there are certainly still many of the white population that harbor similar thoughts and opinions.

Less outwardly strident groups like the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) have replaced the Klan, as well as a number of churches which preach a milder form of Christian Identity theology, which present a more civilized veneer of the same old intolerance.