Clinton Addresses Lawrence King's Murder
Today Senator Clinton's campaign released a statement:
“I was deeply saddened by the recent death of 15-year-old Lawrence King who was killed at his school in Oxnard, CA. No one should face intimidation or violence, particularly at school, because of their sexual orientation or the way they express their gender identity"
“We must finally enact a federal hate crimes law to ensure that gay, lesbian and transgender Americans are protected against violent, bias-motivated crimes. We must send a unified message that hate-based crime will not be tolerated.”
“I was deeply saddened by the recent death of 15-year-old Lawrence King who was killed at his school in Oxnard, CA. No one should face intimidation or violence, particularly at school, because of their sexual orientation or the way they express their gender identity"
“We must finally enact a federal hate crimes law to ensure that gay, lesbian and transgender Americans are protected against violent, bias-motivated crimes. We must send a unified message that hate-based crime will not be tolerated.”
Labels: 2008 Presidential campaign, hate crime, Hillary Clinton, Lawrence King
posted by Sara at 6:30 PM
11 Comments:
I'm OK with a hate crimes law - but let's not kid anyone that it will protect them.
It's already against the law to shoot somebody, right?
I hadn't seen this --thanks posting it. I just wish she had said something sooner after the shooting, and I wish she had made the national news with it.
But it is nice to hear her state clearly what she wants in a Hate Crimes bill. Will Obama follow her lead on this?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if they would both take a stand on gun control? To disarm America?
I know there is a long history and reason for this, but the number of shootings, and the easy availability of guns, in your society baffles and frightens most europaeans.
With a gun, it is just too easy to kill anyone, or a large number of people.
In Denmark, violent crime among "normal people" is mostly committed with fists, sometimes with a knife, if a knife is at hand, and that is definitely bad enough.
Career criminals have guns, but they mostly use them against each other - which, of course, is also bad enough.
I really think guns are your problem rather than hate, because guns can make hate deadly, like in this case. And it is so hard to fight hate.
I'm sure Obama will follow her lead.
Hate crimes law is not as much about the additional time on the sentence. It is about public awareness.
when someone is killed simply because of their race, religion, sexual/gender identity, it's a flag to the community, to society, that we have failed.
it's also a statement that when someone kills someone else simply because of it, our society believes there is a stronger/additional consequence.
just like when you kill a cop.
The hate crimes bill, in my opinion, is essential. it says something about who we are.
and YES, we need to disarm the whole damn country.
good luck with that. we have it in our craw that guns equal freedom.
Hmm. I see what you mean, honestly, I do.
But then, on the other hand, why not add a penalty for shooting a shopkeeper - he was just minding his own business.
Or add a penalty for killing your wife/girlfriend (a majority of cases) because you have a special obligation toward someone who trusts you?
Or how about killing your own children? There are a lot of cases, and surely, that is the worst possible breach of responsibility.
The point being: I find it hard and meaningless to rank murders.
you have to look at the history of hate crimes legislation- it came from the civil rights movement.
It was about the need to address a minority groups safety.
sometimes, a law is the first step.
Ulla -- it's not really about "ranking" them, it's about making them known for what they are: crimes with a hateful and deliberate motive, as opposed to some random act of stupidity. Of which we also have many in this country ....
And I agree completely with you about the guns, but whenever I write on my blog about it, I get inundated with comments about how the citizens must be armed to protect the nation. Personally, I had no idea Canada was such a threat.
damn, sue, they have all that crazy universal healthcare and affordable medications!!
And I've heard that some of them don't even speak English!
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