Of Hate and Animus

So, some kids here at the University of Wisconsin vandalized the property of a homosexual RA. Vandalism is, of course, not cool. In addition, i don't personally believe that vandalizing someone's property because they're gay is cool, either. In fact, i think that's patently uncool. And stupid. Homophobia is stupid.

Having gotten all that out of the way, though, let's consider the fact that the kids have been charged with felonious because their crimes, though misdemeanors, are aggravated because they're "hate crimes." This seems pretty fucking stupid to me, as well.

To begin, let's consider what the homophobic vandals actually did. According to this Badger Herald (the UW student newspaper) article:

According to the police report, the four students allegedly wrote offensive, anti-homosexual comments on the liaison's white dry-erase board, ripped down LGBT posters and spit on his door.

Now, let's consider. The purpose of a whiteboard is to be written on, erased, and then written on again. Whatever (admittedly uncool) anti-gay slogan these kids wrote on the whiteboard, it could be erased in about 2 seconds, give or take a second. The LGBT posters were, i presume, made of paper, which, presumably, would be easily replaced or re-put-up. Then there's the issue of spit, an unpleasant bodily fluid, but not the most offensive and one that is done away with. So, basically, these kids got the other kid's door messy. Yeah, i'd say they deserve to be charged with a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in jail and/0r $20,000 in fines. Granted, i haven't looked at the statutes in question, which may require little or no actual property value, but the potential liability that these young men are now faced with is absurd.

The kids have done little or no permanent damage to property. The worst thing they've done is hurt someone's feelings. As anyone who knows me should know, i don't give a shit if people do things that hurt someone's feelings. In fact, i think it's you're right to hurt someone's feelings through words and other forms of speech. Does that mean i think that these idiot kids had the right to fuck with someone else's property? Absolutely not. They should be subject to whatever penalties the dorm they lived in prescribes for vandalism. But to say that they've done something so bad as to warrant the involvement of the police, and then say that they deserve to be charged with felonies, meaning that, if convicted, they will forever carry the stigma that comes with being a convicted felon, pushes the boundaries of reason so far as to be absurd.

Just like the situation involving "blasphemous" depictions of the Prophet, this comes down to stupid people reacting to stupid things stupid people have done in stupid ways.