Gay man attacked by two marines in Georgia / FBI and Justice Dept ponder filing Hate Crime charges

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Cpl. Keil Joseph Cronauer, 22 (left) and Lance Cpl. Christopher Charles Stanzel 23 (right)

Two Marines have been arrested [misdemeanor battery charges] for allegedly beating a gay man in Savannah, Georgia. Keil Cronauer and Christopher Stanzel are accused of attacking Kieran Daly so badly that he suffered bruises on his brain, reports the Savannah Morning News. In addition to the bruises, Daly suffered two seizures immediately after the attack. His friends performed CPR. While Cronauer and Stanzel told police that Daly was harassing them, Daly explained that the two were mad because they thought that he had winked at one of them. The Morning News reports: "The guy thought I was winking at him," Daly said. "I told him, 'I was squinting, man. ... I'm tired.'" Daly said one of the men told him he demanded respect because he served in Iraq. And at least one hurled slurs at him as he tried to walk away."That's the last thing I remember is walking away," Daly said. Because Georgia is one of just five states that does not have legislation requiring stiffer penalties for hate crimes, the marines were released to military police. The station reports that Cronauer and Stanzel are based at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, South Carolina and are currently restricted to the base.

There are many sad things in the story, but the most perplexing question for me is why aren't these Marines in a brig and just merely confined to their base? This story during Gay Pride month confirms for me precisely the need for hate crimes laws: states and localities refusing to treat these cases in a serious manner. The FBI and Justice Dept are looking into the possibility of filing charges under the recently enacted Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Source.

Here's more information, and check out their commanding officer's reaction to all this. It will make your blood boil!

Comments

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Oh, and p.s. if we are pulling out our family's respective military credentials and waving them around:

My father is a former Air Force officer who served on an overseas nuclear bomb base during the Cuban Missile Crisis and he thinks that *IF* your husband would protect men under his command from the consequences of disgracing their uniforms like then then he is unfit to command. I sincerely hope that he is a better officer than you've portrayed him.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

I'll join in.

My dad served 2 combat tours in Vietnam as Special Forces and also served as a base commander. And he has no problems serving with gay people.

I myself was Army and Air Force and I have no problems serving with gay people.


There. Enough with the garbage of being military = disapproving of gays.

[rainynights.livejournal.com]

You have never served with him so you have no clue. You are not fit to lick the dust off his boots. I could care less about your family's credentials to be honest with you. I was only giving you my opinion on the subject you can take it or leave it makes no difference to me =)

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

You have never served with him so you have no clue. You are not fit to lick the dust off his boots.

This from someone who is saying that being beaten to a pulp is an acceptable consequence of unwanted flirting?

Yah, I'm really depressed.

I could care less about your family's credentials to be honest with you

Now you know how most of us feel about you using your husband's service as a basis for your constantly presuming to speak for everyone who has served.

I was only giving you my opinion on the subject you can take it or leave it makes no difference to me =)

And saying that if the servicemen in question were "harrassed" then they are excused from resorting to beating a man to a pulp AND insinuating that your husband, an officer, believes the same and would protect them under that circumstance --

For the sake of his oath of service, I hope you are misrepresenting him.