Comments about ‘FBI report shows rise in Utah's hate crimes’

Just read the comments in all the letters / columns that have appeared in the Des News. That will help explain this.

The LDS church overstepped in California and Prop 8.

I am not surprised that anti-gay violence is on the rise in Utah. People don't realize that some of the hateful things that are said about gay people are acted upon by confused young people. The Church should speak up loudly to denounce anti-gay hate crime.

Hate crimes against people of relegion have been happening for years!

It says anti-gay crimes surged NATIONWIDE by 17%. How is this the LDS Church's problem?

The article does not report the numbers for Utah other than to say there were 9 anti-gay crimes in Utah in 2007. We don't know how many there were in 2006 or 2005, etc.

Also, the self-reporting nature of the crimes and the varying definitions of what constitues a hate crime make tracking them and drawing conclusions from them questionable at best.

I will agree with the first comment, however, it being a good example itself of the kind of irrational attribution of random reporting to a single entity.

Talk about hate. Really.

With the government officially sanctioning hate crimes against the FLDS, why shouldn't the public join in on the fun?

This law is stupid. If a guy hits me with a baseball bat, that's hate, regardless of his or my belief or ethnic background. We need to hold every criminal responsible for their actions to the fullest extent of the law.

You are one sick guy. What is your problem? Let me guess....nothing better to do??????

The LDS church feels it has the obligation to speak out against gay marriage, and I am not going to argue with that. I myself am opposed to gay adoption.

Then I have some advice to the LDS church. Because the church is speaking out against gay marriage, it now has a special obligaion to teach tolerance of people who are different.

I understand the church already does this, but not sufficiently. There are those in the church who wouldn't dream of uttering a swear word, but think nothing of mocking people who are different.

If LDS culture can be made to pay so much attention to something so insignificant, certainly it can be made to do right by the big things, that is loving your neighboor as yourself.

What the report left out was WHO committed those crimes. It seems that everyone simply assumed that someone outside the groups specified in the report had committed the crime.

For the report to be meaningful, it needs to report both sides of the story. Having an increase in crime is one side of the story. Reporting on who is committing the crime is the other side of the story.

Utah is the reddest state in America. The Right's carefully orchestrated spreading of hatred and division is legendary.

At this point, no campaign attack or nasty tactic should really surprise us. We've seen the Britney/Paris ad. We've heard the Ayres/terrorism robo-calls. We've suffered through lectures about socialism from the governor of the state that receives more per capita from Washington than any other. And, yesterday, came the inevitable Rev. Jeremiah Wright television ad.

Now comes word of emails, sent by some entity called the Republican Committee of PA to 75,000 Jews in Pennsylvania warning that Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision ... Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"

1. This "survey" is totally unscientific and meaningless.

2. A crime is a crime and the perpetrator deserves to pay the price - whatever the motivations. Hate crime laws elevate certain groups of people above the rest.

3. "The Church" talks in every general conference, in every issue of its magazines, and in every text text book about unconditional love and understanding for our neighbors. People in the church, and even church leaders, make mistakes. But we're trying.

We welcome you to our state. Just be prepared to be assaulted if you are a minority or gay.

The LDS Church cannot denounce anti-gay hate crimes without undermining their attempts to get Proposition 8 passed in California. How sad.

Are you kidding me "Blue Stater?" The right is legendary for orchestrating hate and division? Perhaps they are, in that they have a value system that, and this is shocking, they value enough to stick for. But they certainly do not surpass the sychophants on the left for bitter, shrill, envious spite.
And those who blame the LDS church for these hatecrimes, which it seems only the hated white, caucausion male is capable of committing, need to go to Sunday School once in a while. There may be the occassional member with a goofy or hate filled outlook, but it is not the doctrine of the church to preach "whack the gay." In fact, quite the opposite, but since the LDS church takes a stand on social issues for reasons that to them seem true, they must simply be haters teaching hate so that hate can be communicated to other haters so their hate can be transmitted in a more hateful way.

Hate Crimes statistics are notoriously problematic due to under reporting by victims, and inter-agency variations in reporting and classification. They also do not capture the low level (and far more frequent) problems of anti-gay bullying and harrassment.

In response to the comments about the LDS Church and Prop 8 in California, yes there has been an increase and a hardening of anti-gay rhetoric on comment boards and public forums but this is (sadly)a typical election year phenomenon. You would be hard pressed to make a DIRECT correlation between anti-gay ballot initiatives, conservative get-out-the-vote tactics and documented hate-crimes.

HOWEVER...these stigmatizing and polarizing campaigns (especially from religious authority figures) can INDIRECTLY impact the crime triangle (perpetrator-victim-environment). Perpetrators of Hate-Crimes are emboldened because they perceive their gay victims as unprotected by society, so the chances of their detection/punishment are low. Likewise, victims hesitate to come forward because they feel alienated from mainstream society and the judicial process.

Hate-Crimes occur where they are socially and tacitly approved. Unfortunately, the discrimination built into Utah's Amendment Three, a lack of legal standing for gay victims, coupled with Utah's largely meaningless Hate Crimes statute, does create an environment in which anti-gay hate crimes can thrive.

Utah is Rush Limbaugh's largest radio audience.
For 3 straight hours a day, 5 days a week and reruns on weekends, Utahns have their ears glued to the bloated bigot spout hatred towards:
The media, liberals, the Clintons, the Kennedy's, Michael J. Fox, Muslims, blacks, women ... you name it.
Is it any wonder hate crimes are on the rise in Utah?

Take a look at all the hate crimes towards Mormons, and many of their churches are vandalized by hate crime, as are some of their surrounding neighbors. This happens in all groups of people but in Utah certain ones are singled out just a bit more.

re. to bill you are one sick guy! do you know bill or are you going off heresay? Your going off heresay!! hate crime in proggress? your attack on Bill is a reflection of your unwarranted hatred of the FLDS whom you know nothing about! News from Flora and her ilk are nothing but lies are you really that stupid???

I wonder if the current targets of the left will ever qualify for hate crimes legislation. Rich people (but only if you are white and conservative), people who drive SUVs, those who want to protect the unborn from destruction, and those who still believe in God are all subject to "hate speech" from the left. (If you don't believe me, just read some of the posts in these forums.)

Naturally, this hate speech will result in confused, young people enacting hate crimes against these groups of people. Will the left teach tolerance for these people even as they speak out against them?

The first ammendment is about preventing the government from punishing a person because of what they believe or say.
Hate crimes are about punishing a person because of their beliefs.

The terms 'Hate Crime' and 'Hate Speach' must be deleted from the American lexicon before they regulate away all our rights of expression.

The left is into mind control.

"If LDS culture can be made to pay so much attention to something so insignificant." I'm guessing the writer is referring to proposition eight or the churches' opposition to gay marriage when pays "so much attention to something so insignificant."

The church does not view this issue as "insignificant" in any way. An official proclamation on the family, issued by the church over a decade ago, firmly states that marriage is between a man and a woman (please, lets not get into the polygamy issue right now).

The church has a strong interest in promoting a healthy marriage between a man and woman, so please don't trivialize that. The church has a right to speak out on any issue it wants. It's free speech.

However, I do believe for myself that charity and adherence to applicable laws is vital in a civilized society. And of course we as members of the church should practice charity (the pure love of Christ) for all mankind.