Down Savannah way, two Marines were jailed Saturday on misdemeanor battery charges after they beat up a gay man.
Misdemeanor? Seriously?
At about 4 AM, a metro police officer saw two men running on Congress Lane, and just minutes later he received a call about a man at Congress and Bull streets lying unconscious on the ground. The officer found 26-year-old Kieran Daly at that intersection.
The officer then caught up with the two men who were running away; both men, Keil Joseph Cronauer, 22, and Christopher Charles Stanzel, 23, are stationed at Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Ah yes, another South Carolina connection to hate and violence
Cronauer and Stanzel told police officers that they were being harassed by a gay man--he ALLEGEDLY winked at them--and simply wanted to get away, but witnesses offered a different story. They told police one of the men grew angry because he thought Daly was winking at him and so he naturally felt obligated to strike Kieran Daly in the back of the head with his fist, knocking him unconscious.
Kieran Daly says he never winked at the men, and, in fact, tired to explain what he was doing: "I told him, 'I was squinting, man. ... I'm tired.'" Daly also said one of the men told him he demanded respect because he served in Iraq, and then hurled slurs at him as he tried to walk away. "That's the last thing I remember is walking away."
Kieran Daly was taken to Memorial University Medical Center and diagnosed with bruises to his brain; he suffered two seizures immediately after the attack and was expected to remain hospitalized for several days.
For ALLEGEDLY winking.
When does a wink result in a blow to the head? And when do people wake up and realize that you can't beat someone, almost to death, because they looked at you, or because you think they looked at you, or because you're just a homophobic pig out looking for some gay as to beat down.
This nonsense must end. The perpetrators of these types of hate crimes, and since all parties agree that the Marine thought Daly was winking at him, it qualified as a hate crime, must be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
A wink shouldn't land you in the hospital. Or in jail.
Sick, sad world. I hope they don't get off with just a slap on the wrist.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have a lot to say about this tomorrow morning. Punching someone in the back of the head is not only criminal, but it could mentally impair the victim for life.
ReplyDeleteBob, the more I read about this case the more it seems it will take a turn for the worst. Everyone involved in this case, except the victim, seem to be trying to minimize what the two Marines did. Not good.
ReplyDelete