oceanblueeyes
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- Jan 2, 2004
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While Tyler's death was tragic, I don't think we've been allowed to know the full story. The hate crimes legislation was enacted as a reaction to Tyler's suicide and now I believe Ravi is a victim of that emotional wave. A respected friend of mine put it this way:
"...It has caused me to rethink the whole hate crime concept and it is really hard, at least for me, to find the reasonable middle ground in such things.
The law is better suited to regulate behavior (ie illegal to d)o things that harm other people. Those things are tangible and can be demonstrated with evidence.
It is akwardly suited at best to regulate motivation. People are complex beings that sometimes act rationally, sometimes not, may be mature in one situation and act differently in another depending on who is present. etc etc etc . People may say one thing and do another. Someone may talk about hating gays and never try to harm someone and someone else may never talk about it and try to harm someone. How do you demonstrate what specific thoughts motivated someone to act a certain way?"
I don't feel this is justice in any way. I feel for Tyler's family but Tyler was fragile for other reasons.
I do agree that Tyler was probably fragile before this happened to him. He was dealing with personal issues......such as his mother being shocked when he told her he was gay.......a new campus...but I do feel those who commit suicide have some major event happen in their lives that pushes them over the edge where they just want ALL of the pain to go away. While Ravi is not responsible for Tyler's death he did play a part, imo.
From all the evidence entered it doesnt take a rocket scientist to know what Ravi's motivation was when he invaded Tyler's privacy. All of the evidence pointed toward bias against gays.
So, imo, justice was served, and I hope it sends a strong message to others who may be thinking about acting out on their biases.
Ravi had every right to dislike gays but he did not have any right to put those biases in action in order to humiliate and demean another human being by spying on him with the webcam and wanting others to join in on it.
IMO