PC PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS CONTINUES

Trial this week

"It is a story that has the Christian community on the edge of its seat. In Philadelphia [on Oct. 19th, 2004], 11 Christians were arrested and charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law (the Ethnic Intimidation Act), for preaching the Gospel. The arrests took place at a homosexual event last October, and five of the 11 still face serious criminal charges. Twenty-five-year-old Michael Marcavage is at the center of a case that could determine whether preaching the Gospel is a hate crime; specifically, whether preaching against homosexuality is a hate crime. Marcavage, who has a ministry called Repent America, and 10 other Christians, took their message "Homosexuality is sin, Christ can set you free" to Outfest, Philadelphia's annual gay "coming out" celebration, last October.

The video of the event shows the Christians being surrounded by an aggressive homosexual security force that was holding giant pink styrofoam angels and blowing loud whistles. Marcavage's lawyer, Scott Shields, says the video is key to their defense. Shields said, "Because a picture tells a thousand words, it shows exactly what happened and when the Christians appeared at this event. Michael Marcavage and the other defendants were met by this hostile, lawless mob -- and they really were. They had these gigantic, pink styrofoam boards to block their written messages, and they were blowing these obnoxious whistles, and when you see the whole video, you can tell that the police are just getting very tired of hearing all of this noise. And the only way to stop that wasn't to tell them to stop and put down their pink boards and put their whistles away. They arrested our clients."

Marcavage is seen on the video questioning police about his First Amendment rights. Later, he and the others are led away from the crowd, handcuffed, and put into a paddy wagon and taken to jail. Once behind bars, Marcavage discovered just how serious the charges were: three felonies and five misdemeanors. The felonies include: ethnic intimidation and inciting a riot found under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law. The charges could mean 47 years in prison, if convicted. Marcavage said, "Well, it was absolutely astonishing. I had no idea that I would be one of the first victims in our nation to be charged under hate crimes legislation, which I see as the criminalization of Christianity. When you look at the target audience of these hate laws, it is the Christians -- they want to silence our message."

The case is unprecedented, because, according to Shields, "It's the first time in America that preaching the Bible has become the evidentiary basis for a hate crime." Shields remarked, "In my estimation, this is sort of the `last gasp' of this whole movement. They want to go into the public square, they want to have their open celebrations of sin, as Mr. Marcavage states; yet when the Christians come with a message that's completely antithetical to what their message is, they act like a lawless mob and they put the Christians down." Shields said that the case is a clear violation of his clients rights to free speech, provided not only under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but even more strongly under Pennsylvania's free speech laws. And Shields added, "I think it's disturbing, because it's a complete and absolute abuse of power. Our government officials are going to do everything they can to protect any special interest group out there, and I think that these prosecutions are all about getting the Christians to just go back into the closet.".....

Philadelphia is a city rich in history. The signing of the Declaration of Independence happened here, the Liberty Bell is here, this is the birthplace of American freedom, including religious freedom, but it may also go down in history as the city that jailed 11 Christians, and charged them with a hate crime for preaching the Gospel. It is a charge that the founder of Pennsylvania himself was familiar with. William Penn, who now looks down from his perch atop city hall, was once arrested for preaching the Gospel in public. But that happened in England. He came to America to escape religious persecution.

Marcavage fears Christianity itself is now on trial. He said, "What does this mean for the pastor in the pulpit, or the Christian sharing his faith in the workplace? We're going to find more and more Christians who are going to be targeted under these types of laws in the future, and our hope is that Christians would awaken to the fact that if we don't say something now, we'll end up saying something behind bars."

Philadelphia's District Attorney Lynn Abraham, who is one of the architects of Pennsylvania's Hate Crimes Law, is aggressively pursuing the criminal charges against the Christians. She is up for re-election, and some charge, trying to cater to the homosexuals.....

Although there is a possibility that the case could be thrown out later this month, many say the fact that it ever made it this far should send chills to every Christian in America. The Department of Justice is looking into the legal charges surrounding the action, and apparently the judge is not too impressed with the Commonwealth's case. She remarked, "If they don't want to hear messages they don't like, there are plenty of other countries they can move to.""

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As a result of the above abuse of the law by the aggressively Leftist female DA, there are now moves to scrap the law as it applies to homosexuals. See here and here, which could result in REDUCED protection for homosexuals -- a fine example of foot-shooting!

Note the contrast of the above events with this note of events elsewhere by Thomas Sowell: "When pro-life demonstrators tried to hold a peaceful march in San Francisco on January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a pro-abortion crowd not only followed them, shouting to drown them out and hurling insults at them, some sat down in their path to block the march and force them to detour". Christians are apparently fair game and those who oppose them are sacrosanct.



LANGUAGE REALISM INCORRECT

"A group of Latino constituents from Worcester say their state representative is discriminating against them because the veteran lawmaker recently told them not to waste his time at a meeting by addressing him in Spanish, which he doesn't understand. Members of the group Neighbor to Neighbor, which represents low-income residents, said Representative John J. Binienda humiliated them when he told the group member who sought a meeting: 'Only English in this meeting. ... People in America need to speak English. They can't function without speaking English.' The group meets approximately once a year with Binienda. In a phone interview, Binienda explained that he is simply pressed for time and trying to allow the maximum number of people to address him."

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DANGEROUS BLACK CRIMINALS OK

(As long as they are young)

"Is there no one in Los Angeles politics who can tell the truth? Not when it comes to crime, apparently, as has been vividly demonstrated this week in the aftermath of a police shooting that claimed the life of a 13-year-old auto-theft suspect. This is what we know: Just before 4 A.M. Sunday morning, LAPD Officers Dana Grant and Steve Garcia were on patrol in South-Central Los Angeles. They saw a maroon Toyota Camry run a red light, and when they attempted to pull the car over the driver led them on a brief, high-speed pursuit on the Harbor Freeway and on surface streets. The Camry's driver lost control of the car while attempting to make a turn, and when the car came to a stop on the sidewalk a male passenger jumped out and fled on foot (he was later arrested). The officers' car came to a stop just behind the Camry, which now contained only the driver. Officer Garcia was the passenger in the police car, and as he stepped from the car the Camry began backing toward him. Believing that the Camry's driver was attempting to run him down, Garcia opened fire, firing ten rounds. The Camry struck the police car, causing damage to much of its right side, including the passenger door where Garcia had been standing. The Camry continued backing up, then lurched forward and came to a stop next to the police car. The driver had been struck by Garcia's gunfire and was killed. Investigators learned the car had been stolen a few hours earlier.

A tragedy, to be sure, but one made all the more sickening by the shameless political sideshow that soon followed. The dead driver was Devin Brown, a 13-year-old black boy. I mention his ethnicity here only because of its relevance to the carnival of racial pandering that's been escalating all week, with politicians falling over themselves to denounce the shooting, and the always reliable chorus of "community activists" calling for the officers to be brought up on murder charges. Perhaps the most craven of all was Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, who called for swift changes to LAPD policy. He addressed reporters and protesters at a news conference staged in front of a South L.A. police station on Tuesday. "I am joining in the anger and the frustration," Hahn said, "and I stand here with great concern over this latest use of force." One wonders if the mayor joined in the anger and frustration expressed by those protesters who carried signs reading "Death to the pigs." Addressing the LAPD policy on shooting at moving cars, Hahn said, "We need to make sure this doesn't happen again." As to how to prevent 13-year-old boys from using stolen cars to run over police officers, the mayor had no suggestions.

More puzzling have been some comments from police commissioner Rick Caruso. Ordinarily a rational man (recall his reported 2002 characterization of Rep. Maxine Waters), Caruso came a bit unhinged at a commission meeting. "It's almost inconceivable to lose a child under these circumstances," said Caruso. "So, to the African-American community and to all of Los Angeles, I apologize, and we need to do the right thing."

It's inconceivable to Caruso, certainly. He lives in a gated Brentwood mansion, with 24-hour police protection, so the grim realities of life in South-Central L.A. are probably little more than abstractions to him. But cops on the street are asking, Apologize for what, exactly? A 13-year-old behind the wheel of a car is just as dangerous as a 30-year-old, probably more so. And neither Caruso nor anyone else has proposed a method by which officers might determine the age of a driver during a high-speed pursuit through the early morning darkness.

Though current LAPD policy discourages officers from shooting at moving cars, there are deliberate ambiguities for those situations in which an officer has no other choice but to fire in order to save his own life or someone else's. Press descriptions of Brown as being "unarmed" overlook the fact that he was aiming a 2,000-pound car at a cop. California law explicitly states that a police officer may use deadly force to confront an assault likely to inflict serious bodily injury. The damage to Garcia's police car leaves no doubt that he would have been seriously injured or killed had he not taken action. Whether it may have been wiser for him to hold his fire and run out of the way of the car is debatable, but he was not obligated to do so under current law.....

This will be a long, sorry spectacle. But one sure result will be that the LAPD, which only now is starting to make inroads into the violent-crime problem in South-Central L.A., will be less proactive and less effective. The sentiment among many cops is this: If I chase him I might catch him, and if I catch him I might have to hit him or shoot him. And who needs that?"

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