I am just sick over this

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Steve, you are right on. Mentally challenged kids can be victimized so easily. Last night on the news the dad was saying that all the son was worried about was whether or not he was going to get fired from the Bowling Alley job. All my co-workers are equally sick over this thing.
On the other hand, I have read a beautiful story regarding the kindness shown to a "special" child by a group of kids who were playing baseball. He wanted to join their game. They let him hit, then both teams cooperated to make sure he got a home run. As my story makes me cry, this story made me cry also because there is also much good in the world.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

My son just told me that all the kids in his School are talking about it. They are all calling those two jerks and feel sorry for the boy. He was also saying how the two are now going to waste there lives in jail, Maybe never to get married or have kids. They might be 50 when they get out.

[grest Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close grest]

How brutal! Is there any updated news about the young man who was so horribly treated??
Connie

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

This may qualify under the "hate crimes" as he is a protected minority in the eyes of the law.

You can be certain that their new fellow inmates will dish out some jailhouse justice to them as this type of crime to them is so abhorrent. There is honor among thieves.

I've been going with the Public Defender's office this semester to jail. Lots of bad guys there, but none as vile as this. They will deal their own brand of swift justice. It won't be pretty.

B.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Oh Jacki, what a horrible story! The sickness in some people's minds is just incomprehensible. I missed last evenings news as I took dinner to a friend (Michele!) recovering from surgery. Several of my collegues have family members who work in the ER - and I know your friends' son will receive special care at BMH.

Words can't describe the punishment those young men deserve!

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Thanks, Pat, I hope Michele is feeling better.

Beags, they did not charge them with a hate crime because the victim was asaulted due to a personal animosity with one of the attackers. He was not targeted because of his condition.
Newsday did report the addresses in the paper. There may be some community vigilante justice forthcoming also. However, bail was posted very high, so I don't think either of them will be returning to the neighborhood any time soon.

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

Thanks, Pat, I hope Michele is feeling better.

Beags, they did not charge them with a hate crime because the victim was asaulted due to a personal animosity with one of the attackers. He was not targeted because of his condition.
Newsday did report the addresses in the paper. There may be some community vigilante justice forthcoming also. However, bail was posted very high, so I don't think either of them will be returning to the neighborhood any time soon.

Damn ! In some states, a case could be made and the penalties more severe.
I'm sure the D.A. reviewed this. Would love to have seen it stick.
Thanks,
B. See below: (from www.berkeley.edu)


" One in a million? Tell it to the Feds. . .
Hate crimes against disabled people are in a class of their own — one far larger than most law-enforcement agencies acknowledge

By Kathleen Maclay, Public Affairs


Hate-crimes researcher Mark Sherry with his service dog, Wally
Peg Skorpinski photo


22 January 2003 | Disabled people comprise one-fifth of the population in the United States. Yet, according to FBI statistics, they have “just one chance in a million” of being the target of a hate crime in any single year.

Berkeley researcher Mark Sherry, author of a new report, “Don’t Ask, Tell or Respond: Silent Acceptance of Disability Hate Crimes,” says those numbers are ludicrously low. Inspired by the song “Mister Cellophane” from the hit musical (and current hit movie) “Chicago,” he calls hate crimes against disabled people “cellophane crimes.”

“People walk right through them, look right through them, and never know they’re there,” says Sherry, the Ed Roberts Post-Doctoral Fellow in Berkeley’s fledgling Disabilities Studies program.

‘Virtually unreported’
Under the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990, the FBI has been required since 1997 to collect data on disability hate crimes. The bureau reports that, of 44,265 hate crimes recorded from 1997-2001, some 133 — less than one-half of one percent — were committed against disabled people.

Despite research that reflects both a high level of disability discrimination and a high rate of crime against the disabled, says Sherry, disability hate crimes are underreported. The voluntary nature of the reporting and the varying time limits for reporting further cloud the issue, he says.

Sherry also found that police and prosecutors often abandon the hate crime element in a case and instead call it vandalism, assault, or theft. He says police may doubt they can prove the offender discriminated in the selection of his or her disabled victim — and so instead file charges for an accompanying crime, such as assault.

Also, Sherry says, police may not consider a crime victim’s disability as significant as other descriptors. For example, few news reports of the slaying of a young black man in Texas by dragging him behind a pickup truck mentioned that James Byrd also was disabled, Sherry says.

Some disability hate crimes aren’t reported by victims because of the victim’s physical need for a third party to relay the information to authorities. Others aren’t reported because the perpetrator is a caregiver upon whom the victim depends. Sometimes police never learn about the crimes because victims consciously or unconsciously ignore the evidence of a hate crime, Sherry says.

Among disabled people, he says, hate crimes are often mislabeled “abuse” and dealt with through counseling as opposed to criminal prosecution.

In sum, says Jack Glaser, assistant professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, “the disparity between reporting disability hate crimes and other crimes is staggering. According to Mark’s analysis, disability hate crimes are not just underreported, they are virtually unreported. The number of media stories about them outnumber the statistics.”

Low rates of prosecution
Yet, whatever the numbers, these crimes are quite serious and tend to be particularly violent, says Sherry, with 43 percent of the recorded crimes against disabled people from 1997-2001 involving simple assault. Hate-crime victims are three times more likely to require hospitalization than the victim of a non-bias crime, Sherry adds.

He reports that while all but five states have hate crime laws, only 23 (including California) provide penalties for disability hate crimes. Federal hate-crime statutes do not include crimes against the disabled, and a proposal to expand the federal definition to include disabled peple stalled in the U.S. Senate earlier this year.

Hate crimes in general, says Sherry, suffer from “a notoriously low rate of prosecution and conviction.” Even in Boston, considered a national model for hate-crime investigations, 85 percent of offenders in 452 hate crimes between 1983 and 1987 were not arrested, and a third of those arrested had their charges dropped.

And the prosecution history for disability hate crimes in particular? A grand total of one case: that of a cognitively disabled New Jersey man who was kidnapped, attacked, and abandoned in a forest in 1999.

A former labor historian, Sherry, who earned his Ph.D. in disability studies at Australia’s University of Queensland in 2002, is currently teaching a course on campus focusing on disability, identity, and social movements. He became acutely aware of disability bias when he was disabled after being run over by a car in 1992; he has spent the last decade recovering from extensive injuries and undergoing numerous surgeries.

“That gave me a chance to reflect on the way disability is understood in our society,” he says. While a disabled person generally is viewed as someone who has undergone a personal tragedy, Sherry says he discovered that the disabled are “struggling for better lives and often facing some pretty significant barriers like abuse, discriminatory attitudes, and inaccessible resources.”

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I just heard on 1010 wins that they pleaded not guilty. They can get 10 years to life.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I just heard on 1010 wins that they pleaded not guilty. They can get 10 years to life.

Newsday says 25 years to life:

The two Shirley teens charged in the sadistic sexual attack of a developmentally disabled man inside a Shirley bowling alley bathroom could face 25 years to life in prison thanks to a new law making the crime as serious as second-degree murder, prosecutors said Friday.

The announcement came as Michael Lunsford, 17, and Steven Rodriguez, 19, were arraigned on an indictment accusing them with the recently created charge of predatory sexual assault. They also were charged with first-degree aggravated sexual abuse and assault.

...

The case marks the first time Suffolk prosecutors have charged the crime of predatory sexual assault, which was signed into law in June. The charge can be applied to any aggravated sexual abuse case in which a dangerous instrument is used and a victim is seriously injured. Even the minimum sentence carries the possibility of life in prison.

Jeremy Scileppi, chief of the district attorney's office's major crime bureau, said the new statute is aptly named because it applies to sex crimes of an especially vicious nature. "It's for predators," said Scileppi.

Assemb. Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck), who co-sponsored the bill creating the crime, praised Spota for "being a real leader in utilizing the stronger laws that are in the books to have them work better for victims."

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

Newsday says 25 years to life:

Yesssss !!!!

I wonder how much enjoyment they'll get out of what they did when it's done to them.

You know, there are a lot of laws out there, but very little justice.

Cosmic justice is a bitch.

B

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Newsday says 25 years to life:

That is what I first heard , 25 years to life but they said 10 years to life on the radio today. Now one of the kids is 17 and maybe that is one reason for the 10 while the other kid can get 25. I don't know for sure.

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

I was visiting the school where the victim's father works yesterday. Although I did not run into him (and perhaps that is a good thing, I'd probably be blubbering all over the man), I spoke with his colleagues. The son is still having a lot of pain, but is doing well considering. He did not have to have a colostomy, which is a blessing. And his dad told the co-workers that his son, while he knows he was brutally attacked, does not realize the sick, sexual nature of the crime. He said that this is the first and only time he has been thankful that his son was developmentally delayed; his handicap spared him even more agony than he already has had.

[Jaybee Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jaybee]

Well stated! We were just talking about what their fate might very well be in prison, and you are so right about Karma. May those two village idiots get some rough justice. Jean, who is beyond sickened, and wishing for some vigilantes.

Yesssss !!!!

I wonder how much enjoyment they'll get out of what they did when it's done to them.

You know, there are a lot of laws out there, but very little justice.

Cosmic justice is a bitch.

B

[Jaybee Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jaybee]

Oops! Steve, I forgot to thank you for looking up, and posting the news article. Thank you. Jean

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

For some reason reading this thread made me refer to this, I had saved a while ago:

Who took:

The melody out of music,
The pride out of appearance,
The courtesy out of driving,
The romance out of love,
The commitment out of marriage,
The responsibility out of parenthood,
The togetherness out of the family,
The learning out of education,
The service out of patriotism,
The Golden Rule from rulers,
The nativity scene out of cities,
The civility out of behavior,
The refinement out of language,
The dedication out of employment,
The prudence out of spending,
The ambition out of achievement, or,
God out of government and school.
=====================================

May you find peace!