Tom Maguire has a post up about an arrest at Pace University. A man was arrested for the "hate crime" of throwing a koran down a toilet.
I Guess He Should Have Just Burned A Flag
This will make for a fascinating prosecution:
Hate-crime arrests in Quran desecrations at Pace University
July 27, 2007, 8:33 PM EDTNEW YORK (AP) _ A 23-year-old man was arrested Friday on hate-crime charges after he threw a Quran in a toilet at Pace University on two separate occasions, police said.
Stanislav Shmulevich of Brooklyn was arrested on charges of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, both hate crimes, police said. It was unclear if he was a student at the school. A message left at the Shmulevich home was not immediately returned.
Maguire points out that burning a flag or submerging a Christian crucifix in urine are perfectly acceptable, legally-speaking. Dan Riehl points to something which is apparently left out of the quoted article: the koran was stolen. In which case there was a crime, but not a hate crime.
It's in this story. I'm against hate crimes legislation as a rule. And if someone wants to toss their copy of a Koran, or a Bible in the toilet, go for it. But if you lift same from someone else and then do it, you are indeed guilty of a crime. Spare me the hate crime, but I have no problem with him being arrested. Frankly, he sounds more like a nut, than anything else.
Fine, then. Prosecute Shmulevich for the theft of the book and the vandalism, but this must not be allowed to be treated as a hate crime. The koran does not – and should not – enjoy special protection under the US constitution or under US law. Robbie at Urban Grounds and Rich Horton over that Michael Van Der Galien's place also have some thoughts.
UPDATE: LGF has even more about this. Shmulevich is being charged with felonies here, not misdemeanors. This is absurd.
Do we still live in a country that values free speech? This case is pretty good evidence that we do not. Mr. Shmulevich is caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare right out of the Soviet Union, and it’s all happening at the demand of the Muslim Student Association and the Council on American Islamic Relations.
These are the tactics of a police state, this is not how America is meant to be.
I think Dan Riehl misunderstood the implication of Stanislav being confronted “with a surveillance photo of himself leaving a Pace meditation room where the Muslim holy books were stored.”
This does not mean he admitted to stealing a Koran, after all Korans are free to pick up in meditation rooms, but rather he admitted what he did with it. Stanislav should have said nothing to the police before speaking with an attorney.
Pace University made a big mistake making a federal case out of this.
I forgot to mention I blogged about it: Advice to Stanislav Shmulevich on proper way to flush the Koran