Posted on 04/26/2010 12:51:35 AM PDT by Maelstorm
SAN FRANCISCO Three Hayward cousins have pleaded guilty to shooting a man in the face with a BB gun because they thought he was gay, and were sentenced to six months in jail.
Mohammad Habibzada, 24, Shafiq Hashemi, 21, and Sayed Bassam, 21, also will be on probation for three years and must complete as much as 400 hours of community service, including 40 hours of hate-crime sensitivity training, according to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office.
Police said the men went to San Francisco on Feb. 26 armed with an air rifle and video camera, targeting people who they thought were gay, including a man who was standing outside a Mission District bar smoking a cigarette.
They shot the man in the cheek and were caught soon after when the victim while giving a report to police spotted their car still in the area.
The victim was not seriously injured, police said.
Investigators found the rifle and camera, which contained footage of 11 additional attacks that appeared to occur in San Francisco.
There was not enough evidence to pursue charges in the other attacks, said Brian Buckelew of the District Attorney's Office.
"It was unclear whether anyone was hit, and because no one came forward, we can't do anything with that," he said.
The men pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of negligent discharge of a BB gun, but with a hate-crime enhancement.
"Normally the charge would be a misdemeanor, Advertisement Quantcast but with the hate-crime allegation, it becomes a felony," Buckelew said. "That's why (the allegation) is important."
The men had been charged with three felony counts and one misdemeanor, including assault with a deadly weapon with a hate-crime enhancement, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and attempted mayhem.
Buckelew said the settlement offer was made after considering input from community groups, the victim, the seriousness of the injury and the seriousness of specifically targeting people based on their sexual orientation. He said they also took into account the age, lack of criminal history and remorsefulness shown by the defendants.
The men will be formally sentenced May 13.
IBTZ.
Me too... IBTZ
The men pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of negligent discharge of a BB gun, but with a hate-crime enhancement.
Screw the "hate crime" angle. It's assault and battery. Should be good for plenty, all on it's own.
And the victim should look into Pink Pistols.
Gays actively support Muslims and side with then against the right, when it would be in their best interest to resist and scream out against muslims.
That’s odd. The Red Rider BB Gun used compressed air. At least the one I had as a kid did. Working the lever pushed a piston compressing air which pushed the BB when the trigger was pulled.
Wbill makes a valid point. I was in Phoenix last Friday-did any else hear about the mob of thousands that attacked a lone white supporter of the new Arizona legislation?
Anyone?
The cops had to protect the guy from the crowd, and were pelted with rocks, bottles and trash.
This did not even get a peep on the local news in Arizona, never mind the national level.
If this had been a mob of whites on a lone black or Hispanic, it would be a historic event. As it was, only a few freepers seem to know or care about it.
Liberals always screech about equal protection under the law, but Hate crime legislation is a one way street.
Will dig around on FR and find it.
So, it’s not what was actually done, but what people want to politicize from it?
Hate crimes are a travesty of the law. No crime is done in “love.”
A crime, done to a specific “group” of privileged people, does not make it any more heinous.
Hey, crawl out from under your log and read this from the short article above:
“Normally the charge would be a misdemeanor, Advertisement Quantcast but with the hate-crime allegation, it becomes a felony,” Buckelew said. “That's why (the allegation) is important.”
Check out this link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2499465/posts
As the person who started the thread stated, there were at least a few thousand people, all streaming to this one area to swell the attack.
You can see stuff flying through the air.
No one said it was right. What is most certainly wrong is charging someone with a felony when in any other case it would be a misdemeanor simply because of what they were supposedly thinking or rather in this case not thinking much at all.
Actually there was a recent case involving two black guys who beat an old Asian man to death after targeting his son.
Actually, don’t bother with the Fox News link at the top. It is largely sanitized, and to me, makes it look like the cops were actually arresting the guy, who probably made the “mistake” of saying he supported the bill.
So don’t even bother with that one. Check out this YouTube video, taken by someone from above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c6KB_hwzf4
I’m surprised that CAIR isn’t involved. This is definitely a case they could win. They could claim their defendants are being unfairly punished more harshly because they are Muslim and have Muslim views. This is a case where I wish they would.
Exactly. This threatens all of us because these type of things could in a confluence of events turn the victim into the aggressor and the victim could end up with a harsher sentence simply because of an expressed feeling or thought. What happens when a white man who had written something in a blog about how he thought blacks were responsible for much of crime in his area but then ends up during a mugging injuring one of them seriously? His words could be used against him no matter how truthful or unrelated to the event in which he was attacked.
That looks like the most powerful BB gun in the whole world, and could blow your head clean off...
The question is...Do you feel lucky???
Well do ya...punk!!!
FoxNews has it...FWIW...
I don’t watch any television news, to be honest, and that includes Fox. I actually don’t watch television either, but my wife and I were staying in a hotel in Phoenix, and that is the ONLY time I ever even look at television (since we don’t have cable at home, I only really check it out when staying in a hotel. Even then, it seems like a wasteland)
But even then, scanning the local news that night, there wasn’t a peep. I know if there was nothing there, it certainly wouldn’t be on any of the national evening news programs.
So, you saw this footage on Fox?
Yeah, they’ve been playing a few video bytes off and on this morning...
Amazingly they have a couple of shots of the guys throwing waterbottles and other things at the police trying to shuffle the guy out of the area...
Obviously no arrests have been made...
And they still say the TEA Parties are violent...
What goes around comes around I say...
We will have the last laugh...
Well, in this case, the Muzzies pretty much hate everybody, so every crime they commit should be tried as a hate crime...
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