Judges are supposed to be impartial dammit!

[BlaqueKatt]

story here

Secondary verification here

Man assaulted by a Muslim immigrant for dressing as zombie mohammed in a parade. The judge was Muslim, sided with the defendant, dismissed both the VIDEO evidence, and the testimony of the officer that removed the attacker from the victim, gave a lecture on Sharia law and the Koran, called the victim a doofus, and an "ugly American", misrepresented the first amendment, and let the attacker go free because "he didn't know the law here".


This is a perfect example of why Atheists care what other people believe.
This judge rather than acting on the LAW, acted on his BELIEFS, blamed the victim for the attack, and held the attacker blameless.

[Greenday]

Those statements should definitely get the judge kicked out of his position. It shows severe ignorance of the law and as a judge, he should know certain laws like the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of his country.

I'm not sure how about having a mistrial and whether or not obvious conflict of interest is good enough to have one. For some reason, having a mistrial is much more complicated than you'd think.

[HYHYBT]

I think double jeopardy would apply.

[BlaqueKatt]

I think double jeopardy would apply.

not necessarily: Double jeopardy is a procedural defense that forbids a defendant from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following a legitimate acquittal or conviction.

If double jeopardy did apply no prosecutor could ever appeal a ruling, and a mistrial may or may not affect jeopardy-IANAL

[Hyena Dandy]

Yeah, this would be appealed. It should be, and it should be overturned on appeal.

But this isn't a belief. This is something that was DONE. Thus, this is an evil ACTION. That the prophet Muhammed should not be represented is a belief.

[Gravekeeper]

Ugh, this one is irksome. Everyone involved seems to be a dipshit except the arresting officer. Victim is a dipshit, assailant is a dipshit, judge is a complete and total dipshit.

Victim is essentially acting like the Westboro church, just begging for someone to do something to him so he can whine about it. Assailant is a moron, but all assailant did was grab his sign and pull on his beard. Judge is a fucking imbecile.

This is an impressive vortex of derp. However, I'd bet good money if this had happened to a member of the Westboro church everyone would be cheering the assailant on and saying it serves him right.

[BlaqueKatt]

But this isn't a belief. This is something that was DONE. Thus, this is an evil ACTION. That the prophet Muhammed should not be represented is a belief.

yes and without the BELIEF, the action would not have been committed. No one else at the parade cared because they didn't have the BELIEF that it is wrong to represent the prophet-so no one else acted. Pro-lifers kill physicians and protest at clinics because their BELIEF says abortion is wrong.

People ACT on their BELIEFS, and if the act is motivated by belief, you CANNOT separate the two. The action(weather it be attacking someone for what they wear, protesting a war funeral, bombing a clinic, letting a child die of a treatable disease, passing personhood laws for zygotes, killing people that are homosexuals), is preceded by the BELIEF*, without the belief the action would not occur, as there would be zero reason for it, they are NOT SEPARATE. And more often than not, innocent people are hurt because of someone forcing their beliefs onto someone else via actions taken because of said belief.


*or would you argue "I didn't mean to shoot that guy, I just pulled the trigger, the bullet killed him, my actions that immediately preceded him bleeding out had nothing to do with it, in fact he died of blood loss, which is so far removed from by making a tiny muscle twitch of my finger I am in no way responsible."

or

"Sure I yelled on top of that mountain, but I had nothing to do with the avalanche that destroyed that village, I just yelled, the avalanche had nothing to do with me."

one causes the other, they are linked and cannot be viewed separately, without gold-medal worthy mental gymnastics.

However, I'd bet good money if this had happened to a member of the Westboro church everyone would be cheering the assailant on and saying it serves him right.

I wouldn't, no human deserves to be attacked, assaulted, or hurt in any manner by another human. No one has any rights over another person's body.