16-Year Old Girl Denied Bail for “God Hates Fags” Flyer
Two girls were arrested in McHenry County, Illinois last week for distributing flyers at their school that depicted a male classmate kissing another classmate and had the words "God Hates Fags" on the flyers. The two were charged with disorderly conduct and felony hate crimes. As can be expected, debate has been generated on the wisdom of hate crimes laws, debate that's not confined solely to the right. Even gay sites are not entirely behind the arrest and charging of these girls for a minor stunt.
The ACLU, predictably, said it indicates the struggle between protecting targeted groups and free speech, which apparently means hate speech directed at whites, Christians, or men is a-ok in the ACLU's book.
However, while the media focuses on the hate crime debate, an obvious injustice is missed that is far more concerning. One of the girls at her arraignment was denied bail for her actions, and the other was effectively placed on house arrest. It should be noted that they have not yet been tried, only charged. If the McHenry juvenile detention facility is anything like most county jails in the state, the girl will be allowed two 20 minute visits a week through a plexi-glass window with her friends and family.
In almost every single criminal case, bail is set to something. Most murders get bail. There are only two situations were bail is inappropriate: where the accused is a flight risk in a serious case and where the accused would pose imminent danger to society if released. As an illustration, in Champaign County a man was arrested for brutally raping his girlfriend with a weapon and threatening to kill her. His bail was set at $250,000.
In a Sangamon County case in Illinois, a murder suspect, Mark Winger, was given $1,000,000 bail, and, while he was out, he tried to have a key witness murdered. Muaz Haffar in Chicago was arrested for allegedly beating a victim to death with a bike lock and promptly fled to Syria while on bail.
The cases go on and on. However, in this case a 16-year old girl, who certainly is no innocent victim, has been denied bail because she's had run ins with the police before. Those include curfew violations, having cigarettes, having booze, and once for possession of marijuana. In short, she is a mischievous teenager no different than most other mischievous teenagers. If this girl brutally raped her neighbor and then killed him, she would have bail right now as long as she didn't say the word "fag" while doing it.
The judge, in commenting on denying bail, said that the girl's home situation was unacceptable. It's unclear how a judge can legally take a child out of their home simply because the child shows up in the courtroom for an obnoxious high school prank. We have the Department of Children and Family Services for that. In fact, the judge likely only spent a few moments looking at court documents (that had no home investigation) in making his sweeping judgment about the fitness of the parents. At least DCFS would conduct an investigation before taking custody of kids.
The situation of the other girl, getting house arrest, is also problematic because no adult criminal would be placed under house arrest simply by the virtue of being arrested… even in cases where such a sanction would be warranted. This is made laughable absurd by the fact that the maximum sentence the girls could get is 30 days in juvenile detention. The girl sitting in detention without bail will spend likely an order of magnitude more than that waiting for trial.
What these girls did was obnoxious, but it is certainly no catastrophic threat to society to have them out of jail. It is unclear whether the judge is using the hate crimes law or something else to enforce these ridiculous bail decisions. It is obvious to every child who is watching that society will treat them like thugs to be looked up than actual human beings. They are guilty until proven innocent. And we wonder why society is raising such dysfunctional adults.
Fred Phelps of the http://www.godhatesfags.com website is an attorney and so are much of his christian followers.
Maybe they’ll step and help out their fellow bigots.
Comment by jw | May 24, 2007
[...] AsPart Time Pundit notes: “The ACLU, predictably, said it indicates the struggle between protecting targeted groups and free speech, which apparently means hate speech directed at whites, Christians, or men is a-ok in the ACLU’s book.” [...]
Pingback by More Hypocrisy From the ACLU » Constitutionally Right | May 24, 2007
Turns out there is more to the story. The girl who was denied bail has had *thirteen* prior run-ins with the police “including an arrest for marijuana possession in August. McHenry County court records show that within the past year the girl also has been charged for driving without a license, consumption of alcohol by a minor, possession of tobacco by a minor, trespassing and three curfew violations.” (http://www.dailyherald.com/news/mchenrystory.asp?id=315686)
Comment by John | May 25, 2007
By it “turns out there is more to the story” you must mean paragraph 6 in this article. I specifically addressed it, and right now, people with *real* priors are getting bail even when they have significant prior arrests.
Comment by John Bambenek | May 26, 2007
White christian men have had it their way for so long and you have the gall to whine that the aclu isn’t sticking up for them . Get over it.
Comment by Karol Hogerton | May 27, 2007
John, for an academic you use quite a few assumptions in your arguments. I always have difficulty with commentary that is chosen to fit a preconceived agenda as opposed to an honest assessment of a situation. If you wish to persuade perhaps you would offer more than a pre-bias on these issues. I agree that the judge in this case is punishing the young women before trial. Whether or not this is acceptable depends on whether you consider their actions an “obnoxious high school prank” or a symptom of something more universally “noxious”. You have stated your bias and so has the judge. Sounds like a wash to me. Perhaps you are upset because you do not have the power of a judge. Just a thought
Comment by Ric | May 30, 2007
This has to be the most assinine miscarriage of justice I have ever heard, these KIDS didn’t physically hurt anyone and they are being treated like they killed someone. This is the problem with our society today, we are having this ridiculous notion of tolerance being forced down our throats everyday. These girls were practicing their 1st amendment right to Free Speech and it was violated by the first the school and now they being wronging inprisoned by a overzealous judge.
Comment by Jon | June 9, 2007