Thursday, May 1, 2008

Brooklyn DA Aims at Hate Crimes

By: DUNCAN OSBORNE
Gay City News


In successfully prosecuting four men on hate crime charges in the 2006 killing of Michael Sandy, a 29-year-old gay man, Charles J. Hynes, Brooklyn's district attorney, was able to do what he could not in the 1987 killing of Michael Griffith.

"The other thing that I came away with was a sense of helplessness that we couldn't charge what this crime was all about," Hynes said of the Griffith prosecution at an April 28 town meeting. "He was killed because of the color of his skin."

Both men were struck and killed by cars as they fled their attackers. Griffith, an African American, was pursued by a racist mob. Sandy was selected not out of anti-gay animus, but because his assailants thought a gay man would be an easy robbery target.

"We proved someone was killed because of his perceived vulnerability," Hynes said. "That was Michael Sandy."

full article

Posted by Tom at 2:55 PM

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

If you wish, you may contact me by voicemail at 909-7GayGay (909.742.9429).

Alternately, you may fill out the form below; the voicemail system will call you.

This site may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is available in effort to advance understanding. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.