Teen Girls Face Hate Crime Charges Over Anti-Gay Flier

The girls were arrested May 11 after handing out fliers in the parking lot of Crystal Lake South High School that depict a male student kissing another boy and contain hateful language about gays.

Officials say the fliers targeted a male classmate, who is also a neighbor of the girls. The two girls had apparently been feuding with the boy.

A couple things about this situation confuse me. First, since this was on school property, why were these girls arrested rather than taken to the principal’s office and reprimanded there? This seems to be more an issue of school conduct than anything else. In fact, on what grounds can they possibly be arrested and charged? Saying nasty things? My bad, last time I checked that was actually legal and … what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh right, constitutional.

There are some juicy details about one of the girls’ record. Apparently, within the past year, she has been charged with “marijuana possession, driving without a license, consumption of alcohol by a minor, possession of tobacco by a minor, trespassing and three curfew violations.” I guess she’s been a busy little delinquent. I still don’t understand how that makes this specific instance a case for the police and courts rather than the principal and school punishment.

Interesting:

Two separate trials are to be held — the first girl’s trial is set to begin next week while the second girl’s trial could be far off. Her lawyer has filed to dismiss the charges.

“I believe it more attacks the speech, and at this point, they haven’t shown what conduct was truly disorderly,” her attorney, Charles McKenney, told the Herald. “The issue should be her conduct, not the content of the flier.” (emphasis mine)

Bingo.

And besides the fact that calling this case a “crime” seems like a stretch from the start, I’ll throw in a bonus and tell you my opinion on hate crime. I do not believe in “hate crime” as some specific category of crime. I have this crazy idea that all murders, rapes, etc. are crimes of hate, regardless of the color of the victim’s or the criminal’s skin.

I.e. How is a white man raping a white woman any more loving than a white man raping a black woman? Or in this case, um, a straight girl feuding with a straight guy any more loving than a straight girl feuding with a gay guy? That’s a mouthful. I would argue that any feud with a 16-year-old girl is going to be nasty.