What are the Matthew Shepard “lies”?
The case that his murder was an anti-gay hate crime is a bit shaky. One of the murderers, McKinney, had a lawyer who tried a “gay panic” defence, saying that Shepard had made an unwanted sexual advance. His girlfriend testified to this effect but later recanted and said she had lied because she thought it would help him. McKinney has also disavowed the story and is known to have engaged in homosexual sex himself (there are even allegations that he had previously had sex with Shepard).
The alternative theory of the crime is that it was a robbery and it turned so violent because McKinney was a strung-out meth addict. Shepard was also a user and it’s possible the crime was drug-related, but it could have been simple robbery.
So it’s not totally clear what happened but there is not a lot of evidence that Shepard’s sexuality was relevant. Those who have publicly said they don’t believe it was a hate crime include the prosecutor and police officers who worked the case.
American media have generally been reluctant to revisit the case because there is really no point in being like “oh yeah this totemic figure in the fight against anti-gay violence? yeah the story was bullshit”. It doesn’t matter, it’s not like anti-LGBT violence itself is fake. But of course this is a great opportunity for Glenn to get on his high horse about HYPOCRISY or MEDIA ETHICS or whatever the fuck.
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I chuckled, because I know what you’re saying, but in USAian legalese it could NOT have been simple robbery. It was “aggravated” or however they say it
This by itself is an argument that it was a hate crime
absolutely fascinated by this poor guy, what becomes of people
Not a single post on the wal mart shooter. Even we are bored with how commonplace it is i guess.
Fuck usa #231
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There were posts about it in a different thread. Don’t remember which one.
Unless there was another more recent Walmart shooting.
God Bless America! Land that I love!
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Silly little free outdoor concert at a mall by my house had like a dozen armed guards and cars blocking the road on both ends in case of ramming.
FREEDOM!
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I went to a music fest in a cute little town near me. The shut down two blocks of the main street to set up a stage at either end, food and craft vendors, a ferris wheel, etc. This year they had four loaded dump trucks blocking either side of the road, a large mobile command center, and plenty of heavily armed cops. I guess having military at our family friendly events is just a cost of having all this FREEEEDOMMMM!!!
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To be fair this didn’t happen in the U.S.
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Tough to take a map seriously that doesn’t know how to use < and >
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Illinois seems low. Surprising
Texas must have a lot of people dying “with” gunshot wounds instead of “from” gunshot wounds.
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WTF Colorado? Also surprised that VT > NH
Hunting accidents in CO, maybe? same with Alaska