I've always considered the concept of "hate crimes" to be a cynical distortion of the principle of equal treatment under the law. The very idea, it seems to me, seeks to levy additional punishment based on the fuzzy and indecipherable idea of the perp having bad thoughts while committing a crime, presumable above and beyond the thoughts that would normally lead someone to commit, say, a murder.
"Hate" can't be measured or quantified. It can't reliably be detected. How, then, can it be used when prosecuting a perp or deciding on sentencing? And yet that's precisely what a group of Minnesota LGBTQ+ activists are seeking in a murder case involving a transgender "woman."
Savannah Ryan Williams, 38, was shot in the head at close range last month. Prosecutors this week charged Damarean Kaylon Bible, 25, with second-degree murder. He remains jailed with bail set at $1 million and his next court date set for Jan. 9. His attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.
According to the criminal complaint, Bible told police he walked past Williams at a bus shelter near a light-rail station about 5 a.m. on Nov. 29 and that she asked him if he wanted sex. Bible said he began to feel “suspicious” as she performed oral sex on him in a courtyard several blocks away, and that he shot her in the head from just inches away. The complaint says Bible later told his father from jail that he “just murdered someone.” He said he felt sorry for killing her and knew he wasn’t God, but he felt like he “had to do it,” the complaint says.
This sure seems like an open-and-shut case to me. I'm not a prosecutor, nor do I play one on television, but we have a perp who just admitted to the murder; there is likely physical evidence, although the article is unclear on that. So this guy is already looking at (one would certainly hope) some pretty serious prison time. But let's look a little harder at this whole event, especially this comment:
“Savannah should be alive today. Because Savannah is a trans woman, she is dead,” Democratic Rep. Leigh Finke, of St. Paul, the state’s first openly transgender legislator, told reporters. “Transphobia is rampant in America, and it is deadly.”
Well, it's a bit of a stretch to say that Savannah Williams is dead because of transgender status or lack thereof; that would appear to be largely irrelevant compared to the fact — denied by no one involved in the case — that Savannah Williams approached a random person, at 5 AM, near a light rail station, and asked this complete stranger if they wanted sex — and then proceeded to administer oral sex to this stranger in a courtyard. Does this seem like the act of a normal, mentally healthy, rational person? As for that last quote about "transphobia is rampant in America," that's just hyperbole, nothing else.
What's worse is that all of this hooraw about "hate crimes" is taking attention away from who is actually responsible for Savannah Williams' death — that being Damarean Bible. Not society, not transphobia, not anything else — Damarean Bible.
Nothing about this excuses or attenuates Mr. Bible's actions, of course. He has committed a murder. He has admitted to the act and should suffer the full weight of punishment for that act. But what about this case brings up the thought that Mr. Bible was guilty of wrongthink in addition to murder? What legal principle should allow him to be punished, not just for the heinous act of murder, but for his victim being "transgender," of which we have no real evidence he even knew?
Minnesota law apparently for longer sentences for crimes "motivated by bias." How is that bias determined? How is it quantified? Can Minnesota prosecutors read minds? Retroactively?
Just a wild thought, but if people are concerned about "transgender" individuals being the victims of violence, wouldn't "Don't offer oral sex to random strangers in the middle of the night" be a good piece of advice? Wouldn't that prevent more such crimes than trying to determine if a perp had "bias?"
The entire concept of "hate crimes" is something that should be done away with. Hate isn't something we can detect or quantify, much less use as sentencing criteria. Mr. Bible committed a murder; he should pay full consequences for that crime. And he will, regardless of his "bias" or whether he even knew that Savannah Williams was "transgender."
See more RedState coverage of the LGBTQ+ issue at these links:
- Australian Transgender Cricket Player Banned From Playing Against Women Vows to Fight for 'Equality'
- Fighting Fire With Humor: The Daily Wire and 'Lady Ballers.'
- Biological Males Dominate Another Womens Cycling Competition
- Medical School Alliance Cries Out: Nix Medicine's Focus on 'Expertise,' Promote Pro-Trans Anti-Whiteness
