Loading ...
More from the Party of Peace and Tolerance
Law, National Politics Comments (4)
Well, the St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that three students are facing charges for using a bat to beat another student who taunted them about being John Kerry supporters days after the contentious election.
“We were sitting in the computer room at school, and there was kind of a political debate,” said Chad McKay of Arden Hills. “Some people said only gay people vote for Bush.” Chad said the victim said “only gay people would vote for Kerry because he supports gay marriage.”
Backstrom said the victims then “called the other guys some names.”
So, the victim here was apparently beaten for relaying the thoughts of others who might say, “Only gay people vote for Kerry.” The obvious implication here is that the “names” the victims called the perps here had something to do with that statement.
If it weren’t for the fact that at least one US District Court has held that being called “gay” cannot be defamatory as a matter of law, I might think that they felt defamed by that and took their frustrations/outrage out on the victim. But since it’s not defamatory, then I wonder why they felt the need to attack this kid with baseball bats and padlocks? And really, if you’re going to call the namecalling defamatory then everyone has been defamed because the Kerry supporters (according to the story) first called Bush supporters “gay” and yet who was it that got beat up?
And one final note: If the perps had been Bush supporters, how far and wide would you think this story might get spread?
MickC @ November 10, 2004
It amazes me how the (R)s have grabbed stories like this and tried to paint the liberals with them – mind you the (D)s do the same thing of course and accuse the (R)s of being the violent idiots.
Was this a highschool? Were any of the kids even old enough to vote? And if they were were they registered with any party?
Just to balance the post should I mention that (D) who had the boots [literally] put to him as he was being ejected from the (R) national convention not so long ago? Is that the action of the Republican party, or idiots within it?
I think it’s funny that they’re tossing around the word “gay” like it’s a bad thing and hitting each other with bats over a stupid word.
Actually, friend, you’re making my point for me. It is precisely because “the (D)s do the same thing” that I mentioned this story. I still remember the denegration that Republicans stuffered following the death of Matthew Sheperd.
To answer your questions:
1) The attack took place in a zoo parking lot, but the students were students at “a Minnesota Zoo parking lot near Apple Valley’s School of Environmental Studies, better known as the zoo school”. It’s a 400-student magnet school at the Minnesota Zoo for students interested in the specialized science and environmental programs. Minnesota Zoo zookeepers teach some classes, and many classes use the zoo grounds for field research.
2) It appears that all of the kids were 17 years old, and thus too young to vote.
And to paraphrase you: “You treated others just as bad, or maybe worse…” isn’t much of an argument.
So since they were not registered voters, and not old enough to vote even if they were registered, dragging the party, either party, into the discussion accomplishes what?
Is this really about politics? Or is it about stupid kids angry about being called gay and doing something illegal, very wrong, and very stupid?