... Critchet, 29, told police that she approached Spingola, a self-avowed street preacher, and Thomas R. Meyer, also of Newark, at the southwest corner of Broad and High streets and told them to stay away from parade participants. That's when, she said, he splashed her with gasoline. "He said, 'You're all gonna burn in hell,' and he flipped it up on me,'' Critchet told The Dispatch at the time.
For trying to burn someone to death, the man now faces a total of ... 18 months in jail.
Granted that he wouldn't be facing any more than 18 months no matter who he tried to fry.
I do wonder why that wasn't bumped up to a full attempted-murder charge, though. After all, you have the action, you have the threat .... what more would you need?
One person in the article says that it's time to stand up and say that enough is enough. But ... what then? Most people in this country aren't generally in favor of public immolation. (Not generally.) Even most of the Far Right would have found setting lesbians aflame at a parade to be a morally dubious thing to do. This guy is a nutcase, and unfortunately, there will always be nutcases as long as there are people. Confronting nutcases doesn't do anyone any good; it gives them the attention they want, and distracts from other things. (It's only when the nutcases come in flocks with followers, such as the Reverend Fred, that the issue changes a bit.)
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!