So Much For A Sideways South Carolina

I was still feeling a bit euphoric about the Sideways South Carolina [see post HERE] over the weekend and then this next story came up and shattered that LGBT dream.

Up in Newberry, South Carolina, nineteen-year-old Gregory Collins, a white man, was arrested for the murder of thirty-year-old Anthony Hill, a black man, after Collins allegedly shot Hill to death, and then tied the dead man to the back of his pick-up truck and dragged the body for ten miles.

State and local police, as well as the FBI, are trying to determine if this is a hate crime, even though here in non-sideways South Carolina we have no hate crimes laws..

Seriously.

Both men were employed by the Louis Rich poultry processing plant in Newberry County; Collins was hired in August, Hill in November. There is no evidence that the men had any issues while at work, and on the day of Hill's murder, the two spent most of the day together at Collins' trailer. Collins, upon his arrest, says the shooting was in self-defense.

Perhaps.

But what about tying a dead man to your bumper and dragging him down the road for ten miles. It's due to the dragging that police think this is a hate crime: "The issue of him dragging the body lends no credence to it being in self-defense," Sheriff Lee Foster said. "We do not know what possessed this individual to drag Mr. Hill for 10 miles."

Melissa Bookman, a neighbor of Gregory Collins', said she saw the two men "sitting on the porch that day drinking beer...[looking]...relaxed."

But then Collins allegedly shot Hill in the head; and then hauled Hill's body outside, tied a nylon rope around it and dragged it behind his pickup, until the rope snapped. Then he left the body by the side of the road and went home. When a passing motorist saw the body, and notified authorities, they followed a ten-mile trail of blood and body parts down the highway and back to Gregory Collins' front door.

Just another day.

Another sick day and euphoria turns to tears.