Teen Girls Face Felony Hate Crime Charges [Updated]

Crystal Lake Central High School

I'm used to seeing this kind of nonsense and wasted police time here in Europe, but usually Americans have more sense. Now there's an anti-gay hate crime bill running through congress, so expect to see more of this in the future. Americans, this is your tax dollars at work.

According to the articles, two 16 year-old girls at Crystal Like High School in Illinois have had a running feud with a neighbor boy who is gay. So they decided to make some fliers mocking him, and saying bad things about homosexuals in general, and passed them out at their school. Bad move, and not what high school is for. But I think detention would have been the expected result circa 1960, and maybe a short suspension circa 1980. Oh but this is the enlightened 21st century, so we're better than that. Let's call the police and have the girls arrested! (In addition to suspending them the rest of the year).

I wonder if the ACLU will get involved? Naah, I wouldn't hold my breath on this one...

Since the girls are juveniles, their names have not been released. One girl is being held without bond, since she already has a long history of curfew violations and drug and alcohol possession.

But the other girl was allowed to post bond. And you'll be happy to know she's being electronically monitored and under house arrest until trial, only allowed to go to school and to other approved activities. Whew, I'll certainly breathe easier knowing this villainous teenage girl is under surveillance. If she hands out any more dangerous fliers, the feds will know right where to stop her. Where is Superman when you need him anyway?

If these fliers called for any kind of violence, then I could understand the school's reaction. But that is highly doubtful, since they haven't been charged with incitement to violence, and most prosecutors (we hope) would have considered that the more important crime here.

In any case, not only is this a case of judicial overreach and a violation of the rights of these girls, but it is essentially swindling the US Taxpayer when police and court resources are diverted from pursuing actual criminals and used in political show trials such as these.

Some further interesting discussion at Free Republic here.

Update 5/24/2007 10:50:00 PM: Some samples of comments on the Volokh Conspiracy blog:

Every time I see the old "resisting arrest" tacked on to a questionable criminal charge, I really smell a rat.
There's no doubt that it's legitimate to criminalize resisting arrest, as a general matter. But in my admittedly limited experience, if they haven't charged her with assaulting an officer, she likely didn't resist arrest, either.

I recall making the point that hate-crime laws would surely lead to stifling unpopular speech. Somebody told me I was full of it.
Well, being right about such things is depressing. I'd rather have been wrong.

the girls are standing both on the wrong side of history and between a prosecutor and his TV coverage; the technical term for this condition is "road kill."