Matthew Shephard's murder
October 7, 1998
Shortly after midnight, October 7, 1998, a 21-year-old gay man named Matthew Shephard was befriended, picked up, and severely beaten in Laramie, Wyoming, by two meth addicts who needed money and were looking for somebody to rob. Whether they specifically looked for a gay man to rob, or just happened upon a gay man to rob, is disputed, but what seems clear to any objective reading of the facts is that their motive was robbery. (Earlier in the evening they tried to rob a drug dealer but chickened out.)
While Shephard was still missing, two gay friends were already promoting the theory that he was the victim of a hate crime because he was gay, and by the time Matthew was found, brutally beaten and comatose, tied to a fence post, emotions were running high. This was unquestionably one of the most brutal crimes anybody in Wyoming had ever seen. Matthew died on October 18, after four days in the hospital on life support.
Matthew Shephard's murder became the quintessential example used by proponents of hate crime legislation, even though the two murderers, and a girlfriend who originally said they attacked Matthew because he was gay, and even the prosecutor of the case, insist that the goal of the murderers that night was robbery, and their motivation was money, not hate.
For some reason, the liberals who benefit from promotion of hate and thrive on victimhood cannot stomach anybody calling this crime a robbery. They go apeshit when anybody contradicts their version of events. The crime here is not bogus – it was a horrific murder – but the motivation ascribed to the criminals is a concoction of hysterical imagination. Liberals are intent upon using this murder to further political goals and create victims out of certain favored groups of people, even if they have to ignore the facts of the case to do so.
The Matthew Shephard murder, instigation and primary symbol for a decade's worth of hate crime legislation, is real as far as being a crime, but bogus as far as being a hate crime.
Update September 15, 2013: Investigative journalist Stephen Jiminez has written a book titled The Book of Matt revealing evidence that Matthew Shephard was a meth dealer robbed and killed because Shephard wouldn't share a windfall supply of drugs. The two men in prison for life are the correct culprits but the pertinent factoid is that one of them was Shephard's fellow meth dealer and sex partner. So not only was this not a hate crime, it was gay-on-gay murder.
Sources:
10/13/98 - New York Times - Gay Man Dies From Attack, Fanning Outrage and Debate
11/26/04 - ABC News - New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder
4/29/09 - Huffington Post - Virginia Foxx: Story of Matthew Shephard's Murder A "Hoax"
4/30/09 - NewsBusters - ABC Debunked Matthew Shepard Murder as No Hate Crime, MSNBC Savages Republican for Repeating
9/14/13 - Breitbart.com - Matthew Shephard was a meth dealer killed by gay lover
10/28/13 - New York Post - ‘Uncomfortable truth’ in Matthew Shepard’s death
4/25/14 - American Thinker - The True Legacy of Matthew Shepard
Wikipedia - Matthew Shepard
Posted from Reno, Nevada, USA
While Shephard was still missing, two gay friends were already promoting the theory that he was the victim of a hate crime because he was gay, and by the time Matthew was found, brutally beaten and comatose, tied to a fence post, emotions were running high. This was unquestionably one of the most brutal crimes anybody in Wyoming had ever seen. Matthew died on October 18, after four days in the hospital on life support.
Matthew Shephard's murder became the quintessential example used by proponents of hate crime legislation, even though the two murderers, and a girlfriend who originally said they attacked Matthew because he was gay, and even the prosecutor of the case, insist that the goal of the murderers that night was robbery, and their motivation was money, not hate.
For some reason, the liberals who benefit from promotion of hate and thrive on victimhood cannot stomach anybody calling this crime a robbery. They go apeshit when anybody contradicts their version of events. The crime here is not bogus – it was a horrific murder – but the motivation ascribed to the criminals is a concoction of hysterical imagination. Liberals are intent upon using this murder to further political goals and create victims out of certain favored groups of people, even if they have to ignore the facts of the case to do so.
The Matthew Shephard murder, instigation and primary symbol for a decade's worth of hate crime legislation, is real as far as being a crime, but bogus as far as being a hate crime.
Update September 15, 2013: Investigative journalist Stephen Jiminez has written a book titled The Book of Matt revealing evidence that Matthew Shephard was a meth dealer robbed and killed because Shephard wouldn't share a windfall supply of drugs. The two men in prison for life are the correct culprits but the pertinent factoid is that one of them was Shephard's fellow meth dealer and sex partner. So not only was this not a hate crime, it was gay-on-gay murder.
Sources:
10/13/98 - New York Times - Gay Man Dies From Attack, Fanning Outrage and Debate
11/26/04 - ABC News - New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder
4/29/09 - Huffington Post - Virginia Foxx: Story of Matthew Shephard's Murder A "Hoax"
4/30/09 - NewsBusters - ABC Debunked Matthew Shepard Murder as No Hate Crime, MSNBC Savages Republican for Repeating
9/14/13 - Breitbart.com - Matthew Shephard was a meth dealer killed by gay lover
10/28/13 - New York Post - ‘Uncomfortable truth’ in Matthew Shepard’s death
4/25/14 - American Thinker - The True Legacy of Matthew Shepard
Wikipedia - Matthew Shepard
Posted from Reno, Nevada, USA
