"It wasn't a hate crime…"

January 1, 2008 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 9 Comments

WIVB in New York reports that an anonymous caller to the Olean police department claims to be the man who ran over a holiday Pentacle display in early December.

“Police believe they’ve received a phone-call confession from the person who ran-over a holiday pentacle display in olean. This all started earlier this month in Olean. The city allowed people to put up religious symbols in front of city hall..but not long after someone erected a Wiccan pentacle sign.. Someone ran it over.”


The vandalized Pentacle display.

Here is the content of the caller’s message:

“Hello there, this is a tough call for me to make… We were in Olean shopping.. We had dinner.. We were on our way home.. my girlfriend said, hey, there’s the symbol that was on the news I wish someone would run it over I had a few beers in me.. and was showing off, so I backed into it. I am truly sorry it wasn’t a hate crime..just an off color prank.”

See? It isn’t a hate crime if you had a few beers in you and did it to impress your girlfriend. This “beer + girlfriend” defense seems to be winning over the local police, who say that they only plan to charge the man with misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief (if they catch him). No word on if further charges will be entertained (like drunk driving for instance). What do you think? Is this a hate crime or an “off color prank”, what punishment do you think the driver (and possibly the girlfriend) should receive?

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  • Innocent Dave

    Well, let me think. Is this a crime? Obviously, it’s criminal damage. Is it motivated by hatred towards a religious group? Of course. Even if that hatred was purely the girlfriend’s, this is still obviously an example of religious intolerance and harrasment.Sadly I suspect most of the cops and legal types involved in this will be christian, and from my personal experiences with the police I’d be suprised if none of them feel the guy did the right thing.

  • Johnny Lemuria

    I’m not a big supported in the very concept of “hate crimes”. Still, the guy was drunk enough, behind a the wheel of a car, to commit destruction of public property in order to impress his girlfriend, so he should be prosecuted for _something_.

  • Robin Edgar

    Hmmm. . . I wonder if I can get this Totalitarian Unitarian, and self-proclaimed “Citizen`s Police Officer”, charged with criminal mischief or something?As far as the Pentagram incident goes it clearly involves the willful destruction of a religious symbol at the behest of someone who apparently hated it. If someone backed their pick-up truck over a creche scene, or into a synagogue`s entrance etc., I expect that this act of destruction would be treated as a hate crime.

  • Kris

    Hmm…maybe lay him down in the snow and roll a pentacle over him…The best that will probably happen would be that it’s treated as a property crime, misdemeanor variety, and he won’t get diddley done to him really.

  • Robin Edgar

    If he even gets caught. . .It doesn’t sound like the police are all that motivated to catch the perps.

  • M

    Can’t they at LEAST get him on drunk driving charges? I mean, if he was intoxicated enough to impair his judgment, and he ADMITS it, and that he was driving a car at the time, that’s pretty much an admission of guilty for DWI.It’s just like the perpetrator who threw the pentacle wreath off the holiday display in Green Bay. The nativity scene was untouched, but the pentacle wreath was thrown to the ground and vandalized. I’m sure there were cameras around city hall, so there must have been some video record. Did they go after the vandal? No. And they won’t. And they won’t in this case, either.

  • asphodel-ale

    Well, other than the drunk driving charges, I think it’d be appropriate to make him pay for at least one, but preferably three, more pentacle displays. Some community service requiring him to watch over the displays to make sure they aren’t damaged would also be in order. (The girlfriend should be required to do this as well, for instigating a crime.)

  • tigerwren

    I’m calling it a hate crime since he ran over property and not a living, breathing thing.And I really think people need to pick their battles. We’re starting to sound like these thin skinned christians who feel slighted whenever they aren’t allowed to pray in public.

  • Anonymous

    This is really sad because the man (and or girlfriend’s) hatred for the pentacle is probably based on ideologies that aren’t even true. Same for the cops (I know it’s a small offense and cops are busy people, but I think there would be a bit more hub bub about it if it was a nativity scene or something to that extent).While this wasn’t a huge crime or anything, I think he should get something as anyone else would in a similar situation… plus he openly admitted that he drove while intoxicated.