Hate Crimes: May 2007 Archives

I don’t even know what to do with this. This was a comment left on my blog tonight. I’m thinking of calling the police. Am I over reacting?

I talked to the police about it. They wanted to see the comment. I printed out the comment, with the IP address and the email address. I also did an IP trace on it and found out that it is a Comcast IP. I called Comcast and talked with their Internet Department. They would not act on it and suggested I call my "local authorities". So, I did. I turned over to them this morning a screen print of the comment that you see above, without the email address blotted out, the IP trace, which has a location in Potomac, Maryland, and the map showing the exact location of the IP.

I talked with a police sargent who stated that because it is from another state, there is very little they can do about it. He wanted to keep the printout and asked that if I get anymore from this individual, that I report it immediately. He thought it was just someone trying to rile me, and didn't think it would occur again. But then again, you never know. Troubling.

Anthony Niedwiecki and Waymon Hudson reported that while they were waiting for their baggage, someone read a passage from the Bible over the PA system, Leviticus 20:13, which calls for the death of gay people.

“We have received a lot of very hateful messages directed towards us,” Niedwiecki said. “Any names that you can think of have been thrown at us.”

Airport officials said 23-year-old Jethro Monestine confessed and said it was meant as a prank.

“I want to apologize to the couple that were around when the message played,” Monestine said. “I also want to apologize to anyone that was hurt because I didn’t mean what I did.”

“To me, if this was a prank, it wouldn’t involve a death threat,” Hudson said. (source)

I would probably have freaked out also if a passage from the Old Testament calling for the death of homosexuals was playing over the PA system at the airport. I guess you just never know what to expect anymore in the world. I just thought this story was amazing.

Other sources
Miami Herald