The man who police say “defecated on a Pride flag” and then “took a second Pride flag and wiped his backside with it” has been arrested.
The incident happened at about 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 15, when the now-arrested suspect – Fred Innocent – entered Buceo 95 at 201 West 95th Street before committing the hateful and disturbing act.
Innocent, 45, has been slapped with a slew of hate-crime related charges (burglary, harassment and criminal trespassing).
According to the NYPD, Innocent lives at 500 West 167th Street, which is managed by ACHM Housing Corporation, which “has been facilitating a wide range of support to people with mental illness for more than 45 years.”
Do you think Fred Innocent is his birth name or one he gave himself in an attempt to sway juries?
Um, just like flag burning this is protected speech.
You’re allowed to hate in the USA.
You’re not allowed to organize and execute violence, but that’s not what a occurred here.
This is a slippery slope, should this prosecution go forward.
I think the fact that it was a pride flag makes it hate speech and a hate crime..
Slipper slop there Brandon.
You didn’t think before you posted.
Also you didn’t read my comment. In the USA, you’re allowed to hate, you’re not allowed to organize physical attacks.
Say someone poops on a Nazi flag, will you claim that act should be prosecuted as a “hate crime”?
Regardless of his free speech, he damaged someone’s property. I don’t believe this is even covered under the 1st amendment though….
Ish,
And entirely different point. So you’ve changed the terms to get the result you wanted.
Why so angry, Jay? You cannot make your point without denigrating someone?
No. You’re not allowed to break into a place a business and burn their flags or defecate on them. No, hate speech is not protected speech. No, hate does not exculpate burglary, destruction of property, vandalism, or other crimes. These are criminal acts on their own, then hate crimes on top. Hate actually makes the crimes worse, not magically decriminalizes them.
If you want to buy a flag and burn it, even an American flag, you can do that to your own flag on your own property. Not very patriotic, but no longer a crime though it once was. Burning a country’s flag remains a criminal act in other countries, but it was decriminalized here. But you still can’t go burning other people’s flags on their property. That is NOT protected speech either.
Right.
And I didn’t say anything about the break in.
See how you’ve had to make up a position I didn’t take to make your point. You invalidated your argument, and in fact long windedly agree with me.
It’s not a hate crime.
You did say something about the break-in and the whole series of crimes. Collectively, you called them “protected speech.” Your whole premise is that you get to define what constitutes a hate crime. You have decided that this series of crimes, which the DA is prosecuting as hate crimes, are not hate crimes in your personal opinion. Then, based on this false premise, you’re deriding other people’s comments. And there are protected groups in our society who are often objects of hate crimes–by making a false equivalency between gay people and Nazis, the perpetrators of hate crimes, you are only adding to the hate. Your posts are all an obtuse rationalization for dismissing a hate crime against the gay community. You’re wrong, both legally and morally. You should take a step back before you just reflexively argue with everyone’s points and think about why it’s so important to you to deny that this is a series of hate crimes and deride other people who recognize that they are.
If you disagree with Jay, he gets pretty angry. Issues.
Hate crimes have been criticized by some advocates as violations of the 1st Anendnent. These questions will make their way to whatever remains of a functional Supreme Court. Can you imagine what the religious fanatics Alito and Barrett will do with this?
Hate crimes are clearly not protected by the first amendment. Some forms of hate speech may be protected under the first amendment, but that is different from hate crimes. There are some right wing extremists who want to legalize discrimination. Perhaps that’s what you mean?
You’re defining the break in as a hate crime. That’s a problem for your position.
Say I break into a gun shop and steal an NRA bumper sticker, then poop on it out on the street, am I guilt of a hate crime against the subset of gun owners who support the wing nutter positions of the NRA? To your way of thinking yes. But what I’m really guilty of is simple breaking/entering theft.
Alito and Barrett would use their “logic” to make any form of religious exclusions possible anywhere, even in public schools. Thomas would join them.
Still, hate crimes laws, especially this kind of prosecution/arrest, can be trouble.
It’s not like the defecator did so on a gay man while ranting anti-gay slurs.
Less public housing = less crime + more housing for tax payers
Good luck with that.
Many, probably most, lease holders in public housing pay taxes.
Where do you think many of those minimum wage +$1 per hour job holders live? Think about that next time you shop?
Lol, time to leave NYC. They are going to prosecute this as a hate crime but they won’t prosecute shoplifters.
Yet another criminal whose offensive behavior is being excused away as “mental illness!” And so…..as usual, his “treatment” was utterly worthless, and he committed ANOTHER uncivil act! But, say the liberal do-gooders, he is in need of “treatment for mental illness!” And so, the sad cycle continues! He gets no better, and he continues with this abhorrent behavior! How about treating him like the wrongdoer he umis, and jailing him for fouling the streets with his shit??? Making him sit in a jail cell sniffing his own excrement?