And it's all the fault of the California Marriage Amendment! Just check out this LATimes.com blog entry by Raja Abdulrahim.

Los Angeles County saw an overall 4% drop in hate crimes last year, while crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people increased, prompted in part by last November’s highly charged Proposition 8 initiative, the voter-approved [California Marriage Amendment], according to a new report released today.

Crimes against "transgendered" people based on their transgenderism should be lumped in with other crimes against the mentally ill.

How do they know the California Marriage Amendment is the cause? Sounds like they could be making some assumptions.

There were 134 sexual-orientation hate crimes reported last year, up from 111 in 2007, and were more likely to be violent than hate crimes motivated by race or religion, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

134.

Look, I’m against violence and property destruction except in self-defense or in defense of an innocent. As such, if someone is beating up an innocent bystander, for whatever reason, that person needs to be thrown into prison. But let's have a little perspective. There are over ten million residents in Los Angeles county, and at any given time there are probably several more million people in the county for business, as tourists or for other recreation, for education, etc. So, slightly more often than once every two days, someone is supposedly attacked for being LGBTQQUAI???, and reports it. This is a tiny number given the millions of people we're talking about.

Most murders in the county don't make the front page of the Los Angeles Times anymore, and haven't for a long time, because there are so many. And yet we're talking about 134 reported "hate crimes", which can be things like pushing, slapping, kicking, spitting, or spraypainting.

Furthermore, if I were a betting man, I’d bet that violence within "the community", including domestic violence, when compared to rates in male-female relations as a control, is higher to the point where you're more likely to get beaten up for being LGBT by another LGBT person than you are by someone who "hates teh gays".

I'd like to know if these stats take into account physical altercations at demonstrations, where both sides traded insults?

"I am very sad to be here today because my presence means that my community – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – were horribly impacted by hate crimes in 2008," Lorri Jean, chief executive of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, said at a news conference.

Looks to me like you are taking advantage of the MSM's disproportionate and sympathetic coverage of your activist agenda. I doubt you were all that sad to have that platform.

"Anti-gay and anti-transgender hate crimes do not happen in a vacuum," she said, "they happen in the context of a society that still tolerates and even promotes discrimination against us."

What discrimination are we talking about? It is right, rational, and necessary to discriminate between one behavior and another. She (I’m assuming Lorri is a she) cleverly uses that word in a way where it can evoke all kinds of unrelated issues. American slavery and involved discrimination against someone based on ancestry/skin color. But that's a far cry from, "No groom, no marriage license".

Robin Toma, executive director of the Human Relations Commission, said the data underscored the importance of the recent passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends federal hate crimes protection to victims of sexual orientation crimes.

And I'm sure the data is important to keep tax money flowing to the Human Relations Commission and to justify its continuing existence in the first place.

As this blog entry notes, part of the story that tends to get buried in articles on hate crime statistics is the increase in ones based on religion.

Although religious hate crimes rose 14%, that increase is attributed to 15 crimes targeting the Church of Scientology, Toma said. Two thirds of those crimes were similar threatening letters sent to various church branches that were likely from the same individual, he said.

And was that related to the California Marriage Amendment, or not? Is it okay because it was directed at the Co$, and not, say, All Saints? Were the letters signed "Xenu"?

Is it possible that religion-based hate crimes, such as against conservative Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons, are less likely to be reported as such? After all, all three of those religious groups promote forgiveness, and some people mistake letting criminals get away with things on a societal level as the kind of forgiveness advocated by the Bible.

Associated Press writer Jim Abrams has the story on newly approved hate crimes legislation.  The misleading headline says "Congress Extends Hate Crime Protections to Gays".

Physical attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in a major expansion of the civil rights-era law Congress approved Thursday and sent to President Barack Obama.

If this is truly written and will be enforced as prosecuting people for attacks based on sexual orientation, than it applies just as much to heterosexual people as it does to homosexual people, correct? We'll see it if actually works out that way. But I thought physical attacks were already illegal?

The measure is named for Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student murdered 11 years ago.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren't his murderers convicted, and rightly so? So it isn't like this law closes a loophole. Murder and assault are illegal already.

To assure its passage after years of frustrated efforts, Democratic supporters attached the measure to a must-pass $680 billion defense policy bill the Senate approved 68-29. The House passed the defense bill earlier this month.

This is why I take it with grain of salt when someone says something like "My opponent voted against funding our troops." What else was in the bill the opponent voted down?

Conservatives have opposed it, arguing that it creates a special class of victims.

Those who harm others in anything other than an act of self defense or correctly carrying out military action or law enforcement should be prosecuted, regardless of the identity of the victim.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group, hailed the bill as "our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Too many in our community have been devastated by hate violence."

As opposed to "love violence"? Hey, Joe - what about domestic and date violence in "your community"?

The measure also provides federal grants to help state and local governments prosecute hate crimes and funds programs to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles.

Why? Why should money be taken away from, say California taxpayers, and given to Mississippi prosecutors?

The FBI says more than half of reported hate crimes are motivated by racial bias. Next most frequent are crimes based on religious bias, at around 18 percent, and sexual orientation, at 16 percent.

So even though religion was supposedly already a protected class, more crimes were being committed based on a victim's religion rather than the "unprotected" sexual orientation category. So more people are highly motivated to attack someone based on their religion rather than sexual orientation? (The number of criminals is more relevant to the statistic than the number of potential victims.) Something else to notice - way more than 16% of the population disapproves of or is downright disgusted at the thought of homosexual behavior, and a far higher percentage of that understands that marriage united the sexes. Yet these people obviously aren't going out and beating people up or destroying their property. Racism is rather weak these days, and yet it apparently motivates far more crimes than disapproval of sexual orientation. So the the "community" is already way ahead in this game.

"Nothing in this legislation diminishes an American's freedom of religion, freedom of speech or press or the freedom to assemble," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. "Let me be clear. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act targets acts, not speech."

We'll see.

Bottom line: thugs need to be prosecuted and incarcerated, regardless of their suspected motivations. If local or state law enforcement isn't dealing correctly with the criminal, then the victim - not other people who share a characteristic who were not assaulted - is having his or her rights violated.

I'm talking to Whoopi Goldberg and others.

Why is it that...

If a coed has sex and she later has regrets about it, that's rape.
But if a Hollywood darling director drugs and forcibly penetrates a 13-year-old girl, in the rear no less, that's not really rape?

If an office coworker tells a woman she looks especially beautiful today, but she has no interest in him, that's sexual harassment and he should be fired and sued.
But if a liberal President gets oral sex from a young intern and penetrates her with a cigar, it is nobody's business?

Oh, and does it surprise anyone that Woody Allen thinks it is no big deal to do a 13-year-old? He is the guy who took up with his wife's adopted daughter, after all.

Keep speaking out, Hollywood elites. You're revealing to decent Americans exactly what kind of characters you are, and more and more of them will respond with changes in their spending choices.

Drugging and raping a thirteen year old girl will get the average adult male some serious time in prison. In Hollywood, as long as you flee from your sentencing and direct movies, it gets you a lot of sycophants who will excuse your evil behavior. Disgusting.

This is exactly when the the activists who claim to be feminists need to speak up and demand that justice no longer be delayed.

Cancer has done what our justice system failed to do.

I have no way of knowing this side of eternity whether or not she truly was remorseful, repented, and begged God for mercy. Either way, she knows now more than ever before the evil of her actions.

Previously: Dying Charlie Manson Follower Not Released

Here's a story by the Orange County Register's Jon Cassidy that I couldn't let slip by.

A man arrested and charged with murdering a prostitute at a Garden Grove hotel is a gang member who has been deported to Mexico three times in the last decade, Garden Grove police said at a press conference this morning.

Cesar Gomez, 34, of El Monte, is scheduled to be arraigned on a murder charge Monday at West Justice Center.

He is accused of strangling Ashley Lilly, 24, of Inglewood, to death at the Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort on Harbor Boulevard some time late Aug. 20 or early Aug. 21.

I'm no supporter of prostitution (financially or morally), but that someone is a prostitute does not make her any less of a human being, and does not justify her murder. Of course, she made the chances of a crime like this against her more likely when she chose to engage in her own criminal activity.

Lilly had been severely beaten in the face and choked by hand, and her room had been ransacked, police said. She had not been sexually assaulted, police said.

What a waste of human potential this murderer is.

After getting some of his rap sheet, we get this quote:

"We arrest these criminals, the DA does a good job prosecuting them, but beyond that our system is overwhelmed and broken," Polisar said. "Our borders are like revolving doors for these criminals. It's like sweeping back the ocean with a whisk broom."

We should bill Mexico for every dime we spend on this guy. Si se puede.

Maybe the situation with Scotland releaseing the Libyan terrorist mass murderer is apples and this is oranges. Regardless, I give kudos to the panel that decided to keep murderer Susan Atkins in prison. This story appeared in the Los Angeles Times back on September 3, and was written by Richard Winton and Hector Becerra.

For the second time in as many years, a state parole board voted unanimously Wednesday to deny one of Charles Manson's fiercest followers her request for a "compassionate release" so that she can die at home.

She should have been executed many years ago. It would not be compassionate, on the whole, to release her to die at home.

Convicted murderer Susan Atkins, 61, is terminally ill with cancer and has only months to live, doctors say.

Cancer is awful - it is a horrible way to die. But if anyone is going to get it, why not a murderer?

The issue of mercy has long haunted Atkins. Nearly 40 years ago, actress Sharon Tate begged the knife-wielding Atkins to spare her life and that of her unborn child.

"She asked me to let her baby live," Atkins told parole officials in 1993. "I told her I didn't have mercy for her."

I pray that Atkins has repented and thrown herself on the mercy of the Lord.

Atkins is serving a life sentence for the 1969 slaying of Tate, 26, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and musician Gary Hinman.

She has served 38 years in prison, longer than any other female in the state.

Fitting.

After fatally stabbing Tate, prosecutors said, Atkins tasted the actress' blood and used it to write "PIG" on the front door of the home.

During her trial, which took more than nine months, Atkins seemed to show no remorse and maintained utter devotion to Manson, whom she called "Jesus Christ," "the devil" and "the soul."

Cults can be extremely dangerous, and you don’t have to be stupid or gullible to get into one. But you have to be responsible for your own actions.

Atkins is now considered a model prisoner known for helping others.

You mean she hasn't killed any other pregnant actresses while in prison? You don’t say.

She has been married to an Orange County attorney for the last 21 years.

Some people will marry anyone.

In recent years, she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. One of her legs has been amputated and the other is paralyzed, authorities said.

Some of her supporters have argued that releasing Atkins would save the state substantial amounts of money in medical and prison expenses.

Well, yeah, releasing any prisoner would save the state incarceration costs.

These people were trying to incite mass mayhem via murder. Just because one of them gets a terminal illness is no reason to grant parole.

Sandy Banks has an edition of her column in the Los Angeles Times in which she talks about the murder of six-year-old Dae'von Bailey, found beaten to death in his South [-Central] Los Angeles home.

In the Los Angeles area recently, there have been several high-profile murders of children who have been on the radar of the county government long before they were killed.

Police believe Dae'von was killed by his mother's former boyfriend, Marcas Fisher. Dae'von was living with Fisher because his 28-year-old mother "was going through things" and parceled out her six children to friends and relatives.

That is important to remember.  His mother chose to associate with this guy.  She chose to leave her child with this guy.  She chose to have children in the first place.

In the months before he died, Dae'von told adults at school that Fisher had punched him in the stomach and slammed his head into a bathroom sink. He repeated the complaints to social workers who interviewed him and to medical professionals who examined him for injuries. But he was sent back twice to his violent home.

However the county authorities screwed up - or not - blame falls primarily on the murderer, but also with the person who left the child in the murderer's "care".

But it wasn't only the system that failed Dae'von. "I place the blame on the shoulders of mother Tylette Davis," a West Hills reader wrote in a letter published in The Times. "She chose to have these children, then she chose to abandon them and leave their care to others. I have trouble feeling any pain for Tylette."

The sick joke about the whole thing is that she'll probably sue the county and walk way with six or seven or even eight figures from the taxpayers.

County Supervisor Gloria Molina expressed much the same sentiment at a board meeting last month -- interrupting a speaker's monologue about the "gigantic, enormous problem that's within the system that needs to be rectified."

"Parenting services . . . bus tokens, housing assistance, mental health counseling . . . and constant supervision to maintain her house," Molina said, reading from the list of public services that had been provided to Tylette Davis since before Dae'von was born.

"You need to go back and sit down with this mommy and tell her she has other children to take care of. She has to get her house in order . . . deal with her issues," Molina said.

Kudos to Molina.  Molina is the first person to blame county staff when they drop the ball, so these comments should not be taken lightly.  The county had been involved and providing assistance.  But there's only so much the county government can - or should - do.  People show up to yell at the County Board of Supervisors, but what are they doing about people in their own family - their friends - their neighbors?

The columnist checks in with the victim's grandmother...

Her daughter Tylette is not a bad mother, "just spoiled," she said.

This is from a woman who had her own children taken away temporarily.  It Tylette isn't a bad mother, I don't know what a bad mother is.

She had her first baby at 14, and five more by the time she was 23.

Now there’s good motherly planning.  Of course, any pregnancy she had before age 18 was evidence of statutory rape committed against her.  Was that ever pursued?

If only we had...
...the freedom to say "no" to intercourse.
...a dozen different forms of contraception.
..."safe" and legal abortion on demand.
...safe-surrender laws.
...various forms of adoption.
...domestic violence programs and shelters...

...stuff like this wouldn’t happen!

The man accused of killing Dae'von was the father of Tylette's youngest child "and the only daddy Dae-Dae ever knew," Dotson-Davis said. "He raised that child from when he was a baby. My daughter never thought he would bring that boy harm."

Your daughter isn’t very perceptive.  This kind of thing is all too common, despite the fact that there are decent stepfathers out there.

She ticks off the things her daughter has to do to get custody of her kids:

Get treatment for addiction. Find a place to live. Come up with a way to support them. Make sure the children get counseling. And, finally, pass those parenting classes.

How about telling other people in the community to avoid this problem by:
1) Staying in school.
2) Going to church.
3) Reading (there are public libraries, if nothing else).
4) Taking up a hobby, sport, instrument, whatever.
5) Avoiding crime.
6) Avoiding substance abuse.
7) Avoiding criminals, substance abusers, and people abusers.
8) Avoiding intercourse until marriage.
9) Getting a job and sticking with it, only quitting when one has secured a better job to replace it. (This will be easier if the previous steps are followed.)
10) Not spending more money than they bring in.

If people follow those steps, situations like the one in this story will be avoided. Dae'von Bailey didn’t have to die.

Another convicted murder on California's death row has died of natural causes, a peaceful death he denied to 74-year-old Lois Roy Fried of Tulare County.  He's the "70th condemned prisoner to succumb to old age, suicide or murder compared with 13 executed by the state since capital punishment resumed in 1978" reports Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times.

I am deliberately removing his name and the name of another murderer.

The newspaper, apparently unwilling to blame him for the murder which he was convicted of committing, wrote he "was convicted and sentenced to death a year after the May 25, 1982, murder of 74-year-old Lois Roy Fried of Tulare County."  Yeah, I’m sure that was mere coincidence.  They couldn't bring them to say "a year after he murdered..."

Executions have been on hold in California since early 2006, when death row inmate [a convicted murderer] successfully challenged lethal-injection procedures as cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose ruled the three-drug sequence unconstitutional after hearing expert testimony that some of those put to death in the state hadn't been fully anesthetized before the final-- and intensely painful -- dose of potassium chloride that induces cardiac arrest.

How about we do what the people who wrote the Constitution did with their murderers?  I can respect people who object to capital punishment on religious grounds.  But those who object on Constitutional grounds are demonstrably wrong.

But further legal challenges have been threatened and pressure is mounting on state officials to take the cost-cutting step of commuting death sentences to life without the possibility of parole, a change estimated to save $1 billion over five years.

There are 680 inmates on death row, where the condemned now spend an average of 25 years while exhausting state and federal appeals.

That's where the cost comes in.  Some of these bleeding hearts have deliberately made the process expensive so that they can cite the expense as a reason not to have it.

You mean gangsta chic might no go over well in court?  Click on over to this Hector Bacerra article in the Los Angeles Times to see what Richard Rodriguez's attorney is trying to do to his appearance.  Gang membership tattoos may be covered up.

I wrote about Rodriguez earlier - he (allegedly) led cops on a dangerous high speed chase, and at the end of it, got what some cops are calling a "distraction kick" to his head while he was apparently prone - and it was caught on video.

The attorney for a gang member kicked in the head by an El Monte police officer at the end of a televised car chase thinks his client has a great case. On Thursday, Nick Pacheco filed a $5-million legal claim against the city on behalf of the 23-year-old.

Even if the El Monte officer's actions had been completely unwarranted, along the lines of stranger coming up and assaulting Rodriguez, it's not worth $5 million.  A wrongful death case for Rodriguez wouldn't be worth $1 million.

In the booking photo, Rodriguez's head is shaved, and the name of his gang hangs over his lip. Tattoos climb his neck. In the "after" rendition, he's wearing a black suit with a metallic gray tie, neatly combed hair and a lush mustache.

Too bad for him he can’t cover up the video of him driving like he did.

Pacheco, a former L.A. councilman, said his client suffers from headaches and blurred vision, among other symptoms.

Conveniently, they all seem to be entirely impossible to objectively document.  The City of El Monte already has high sales tax rates.  It would be a shame if they had to go higher to pay a gangster who ran from the cops and endangered others.

I don't know about other places, but in the Los Angeles area, there is a familiar pattern when it comes to officer-involved-shootings in which an African-American with a long record is killed in "the hood" - Athens, Compton, northern Long Beach, Inglewood, South (Central) L.A., etc.  This happens regardless of the skin color or ethnic extraction of the officers, but of course it can be intensified if the officers are "white".

Even though the deceased has a rap sheet, and often an extensive, violent, and gang-riddled rap sheet, this is typically what happens:

1. Beginning immediately after the incident, relatives of the deceased (who are almost never eyewitnesses) insist that he was either doing absolutely nothing wrong, or that if he was doing something wrong, the officers' reaction was criminally disproportionate.

2. These same people will stand on sidewalk where this happened to talk to news media, usually sobbing, holding each other, and making a scene, and calling for investigations and "justice".

3. A Victicrat "Community Organizer" with the same skin color (NEVER with a different skin color) who is a professional camera hog will be there, his arm around one of the grieving family members, talking into the cameras.

I don't see this happening in other places, like middle class neighborhoods or various ethic enclaves.  It is almost middle-eastern in the public nature and "show" of the grieving.

Yes, nobody likes to lose a loved one.  Yes, police officers, have, at times, screwed up, and yes, police officers have, at times, intentionally engaged in persecution of poor African-Americans.

But I’m getting desensitized.  Just once, I’d like of these Community Organizers to be shown looking into the camera and saying, "Our community needs to stop accepting violent criminal activity and start shunning criminals - because they cause far more harm to our community than any trigger-happy or racist officer."

Usually, the officers acted appropriately and with restraint, and are vindicated.  But you'll never see an apology given to the officers who keep these neighborhood from descending into complete chaos.

When someone cites the Rodney King riots as some sort of profound social movement of rebellion against oppression, they are forgetting things like what happened last night in downtown Los Angeles after the Lakers won the NBA Championship.  There is an element in the large cities, including Los Angeles, comprised of thugs with little respect for property or law.  They will riot for no reason whatsoever.

And, of course, if the LAPD were to actually aggressively protect innocent people and property, the city would be hit with lawsuits and these morons would make out like bandits, and so would their slimy lawyers.

It is times like this that I seriously- no joke - would not be opposed to martial law and shooting-to-kill in the area where the riot is taking place.  Now, some people scoff and say "Hey, it's just property that's being damaged."  That isn't the point.  The primary internal function of government is order.  These mobs could have easily turned murderous, and I'd rather they be the ones to die than some innocent shopkeeper.

Shame on those who vandalizing and destroying property last night.  It is embarrassing that pro athletes even have to record public service announcements pleading with people not to riot.

Talk radio is not to blame when some nutcase starts shooting innocent people.  "Right wing" talk radio has scores of millions of listeners.  If talk radio was to blame for this kind of murder, you'd see a heckuva lot more of it.

This latest nutcase murderer was hateful (and probably violent) long before the rise of conservative talk radio.

Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times reports some good news.

The California Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld the death sentence of Richard Allen Davis, convicted in the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

Unfortunately, the guy will probably live for many more years and then die of natural causes.

Marc Klaas, Polly's father, expressed frustration Monday that Davis' appeals were taking too long. He said Polly would now be 28 had she lived.

"I have no doubt that this guy is going to outlive me," said Klaas, 60, a crime victims' advocate.

I respect those of you who oppose the death penalty on religious or libertarian grounds.  But I laugh at those who try to argue that it violates the Constitution because it is "cruel and unusual punishment".  The men who wrote those words and voted to adopt them as law would laugh at you, too.

[UPDATED]I usually do not condone breaking the law.

I do believe in self-defense, and protecting the innocent.

Will the slaying of George Tiller end up causing more harm than good?  There may have been some babies spared.  Maybe.  The women seeking late-term abortions may seek other abortionists.  Or perhaps they will be too frightened, or the abortionists will be too frightened.

Since abortion has become like a sacrament to some, I do not foresee the slaying of Tiller causing a shortage of people willing to slaughter these babies.

The Obama Administration may use this to crack down on pro-lifers in general.  Certainly many in the MSM and the abortion-loving public will use this against pro-lifers in general.

As I wrote first, I usually do not condone breaking the law.  On the other hand, I find it difficult to feel badly about the killing of Tiller, after what he has done to so many babies.  I'm just being honest - those are my thoughts and feelings.  Perhaps after I've had time to reflect on this more, I will have more to write.

UPDATE 6:15pm PDT: Pro-life Melinda, over at Stand To Reason, makes a good case for condemning Tiller's killer.  However, notice this pivotal paragraph:

In opposing this evil, one is justified in using only the degree of force necessary to stop any harm that it is within his power to prevent. Therefore, one is never justified in using lethal force when other measures are available.

For any baby (viable, by the way) facing abortion tomorrow, what could those other means be?  When you read about enslaved people in, say, 1855 - killing their murderous slavemaster, do you really get upset about it?  I don't advise that people kill abortionists.  But I have a hard time feeling sympathy for the abortionist, especially one who is performing late-term abortions.  As a father who has felt my children moving in the womb, and has seen them on ultrasounds, I know that it is wrong to kill them - and it being wrong has nothing to do with whether or not my wife or I want to deal with them.