Newsletter15

The law should apply to all equally. Read on...

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MAN CONVICTED UNDER STATE HATE-CRIMES LAW
By Associated Press, 6/27/2001 10:07
NEW YORK (AP) A Brooklyn man has pleaded guilty to assault
as a hate crime in what is believed to be the first successful
prosecution under New York State's hate crimes law.
Mohammad Awad pleaded guilty Tuesday, said Charles J. Hynes,
the Brooklyn district attorney. On Dec. 18, Awad followed
Chaim Spear into a subway car, punched him in the face, and
yelled anti-Semitic remarks and obscenities at him,
prosecutors had said.
"The victim in this case was a young man, traveling home after
a day's work whose only transgression, at least in the eyes of
the defendant, was that he was born Jewish," Hynes said. "All
crime is heinous but hate crime in particular because they are
so imbecilic."
Awad's plea agreement includes attending an anger-management
course as a condition of receiving five years of probation.
He is to be sentenced Aug. 9. The state's hate crimes law was signed into effect earlier this month.

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MAN CHARGED WITH STRIKING MOM, PUSHING BABY INTO STREET
By Samuel Maull, Associated Press, 7/12/2001 18:00
NEW YORK (AP) A black New Jersey fugitive who reportedly said
he attacked a woman near the United Nations because she is
white was ordered Thursday to undergo psychiatric tests to see whether he is fit to stand trial. Judge Gregory Carro ordered the tests for Kevin Jordan, 35, of Jersey City, at his lawyer's request at Jordan's arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court. The judge scheduled the defendant's return to court for Aug. 17.
Jordan's lawyer, Philip Gaynor, refused to say whether Jordan
has a history of mental illness. But he said he requested the competency tests "because I had reason to believe a
psychiatric exam was appropriate." Jordan is accused of hitting Elizabeth Garcia, 41, in the back of the head with keys he held in his fist while she was pushing her 18-month-old daughter in a stroller along First Avenue near East 48th Street around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Jordan then pushed the stroller into the busy Manhattan street before knocking it over, police said. The stroller
was not hit by oncoming traffic, and the girl was not hurt.
The suspect was arrested about a block from the scene of the
attack.
Assistant District Attorney Kavita Gopwani told the judge that Jordan
"said that he hit the complainant (Garcia) because she
is white." Garcia and her only child, Kelly, were taken to Bellevue
Hospital, where Kelly was examined and released. Garcia
suffered cuts to the head. Garcia underwent an MRI examination, which is similar to an X-ray, and is expected to have a cranial CAT scan later, prosecutors said.
Jordan was arraigned on two counts of second-degree assault
and one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and
criminal possession of a weapon. He would face up to seven
years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge,
assault. Jordan, who has a history of assault and drug arrests, is
wanted on drug charges in Jersey City, prosecutors said.
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Why is he NOT being charged with a hate crime?
If she were Black and he was White, he would be charged with
a Hate crime.

In MY Opinion, he is just as guilty.

JBS