Charges Down Graded In Death Of First Nations Woman

[TylerM4]

Frankly, the charge doesn't surprise me. 36Drew did a great job of explaining why.

If she was targeted due to being indigenous, they certainly could have charged him with a hate crime in addition to Manslaughter. I'm not sure why they didn't but my best guess would be because they feel that it's unlikely such a charge would stick with the only evidence being the victim claiming that she heard him say "I got one". For that to stick you need a 3rd party to back it up, and the word "one" is too ambiguous. They could argue that "one" was referring to "One human, or one women, or one target" vs "an indigenous person".

Guy sounds like a real POS

[Salistala]

...the victim claiming that she heard him say "I got one". For that to stick you need a 3rd party to back it up, and the word "one" is too ambiguous. They could argue that "one" was referring to "One human, or one women, or one target" vs "an indigenous person".

Guy sounds like a real *bleep*

For all the outrage I feel that he could have intentionally targeted a First Nation woman I do agree with the downgraded charges because it would be impossible to prove he meant to kill her, (despite the fact that throwing a freaking rusty trailer hitch at another human being from a moving vehicle is sociopath territory) without third party corroboration no one can prove intent to kill.

But targeting a First Nations person, and even targeting a woman, should be charged as a hate crime

"Hate crime" generally refers to criminal acts which....may involve physical assault...when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group...(such as) sex, ethnicity, disability, language, nationality, physical appearance, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.

If he wasn't targeting a specific type of person, and he was just out to injure any random person walking on the street then he should be seen as an unhinged maniac.

But I've been reading crime news reports from Thunder Bay news outlets and there are cases of First Nations being targeted with drive by attacks with eggs, soft drinks, etc., but I haven't seen any reports of others being targeted. Maybe I missed it, maybe it isn't newsworthy, but I haven't seen it yet.

For now it's his word against theirs and without an anti-Indigenous manifesto in his pocket at the scene of the crime he likely might beat the hate crime rap. It will be interesting to read the testimony of the other two in the car, they dropped the dime on him the very next day before he turned himself in, their testimony under oath could be very damaging.

[Salistala]

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/ ... ck-3181956
Well there you go, guilty of manslaughter

[AtlantisKelowna]

...these idiots...these young punks....

One thing that does stick out to me about your comments is the assertion that the perpetrators acted as individuals and their behavior is not representative of their group; that is, there is no real problem with racism in the attack.

That is interesting to me because it is an illustration of a psychological concept called In Group/Out Group Association

It's been demonstrated that people will associate any positive characteristics of individuals within the group they see themselves in (their In Group) as a characteristic of the whole group, and any negative characteristics as only representing the characteristics of the individual.

The opposite is true of the Out Group (the others), that is any positive characteristics as only representing the characteristics of the individual, and the negative characteristics of individuals within the other group as a characteristic of the whole group.

You are right, I do believe the perp acted as an individual and in no way shape or form represents their "group". Until it is proven to be racially motivated I will not buy into the assumption that it was. Personally I feel someone as well spoken as yourself would know better than to fuel the fire with unfounded accusations.

I do not condone any form of racism and if this attack was racially motivated or not the kid is still a scum bag and should have been charged with murder not manslaughter. Nobody can be stupid enough to think that what he did would not cause serious injury or death but fortunately for him our system will consider his rights before his actions and he will probably only serve half of his sentence.

[Salistala]

....fuel the fire with unfounded accusations....

What would, in your mind, be well founded accusations?

This is a case in a community with well documented examples of racist attacks, and this young violent perpetrator growing up in a community with a history of racism just randomly threw a rusty trailer hitch at another person without any intention as to who he was attacking.

And somehow it's me that is the problem, I'm the one fueling the fire of racism, that if I just kept to myself all of this wretchedness would just magically disappear.

[techrtr]

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. A manslaughter charge isn't exactly a slap on the wrist and I doubt that the kid would have been convicted of murder. As it is, his life is $%^&@# and this is costing his family thousands upon thousands of dollars. Tragic end to a second of sheer stupidity.

[AtlantisKelowna]

....fuel the fire with unfounded accusations....

What would, in your mind, be well founded accusations?

This is a case in a community with well documented examples of racist attacks, and this young violent perpetrator growing up in a community with a history of racism just randomly threw a rusty trailer hitch at another person without any intention as to who he was attacking.

And somehow it's me that is the problem, I'm the one fueling the fire of racism, that if I just kept to myself all of this wretchedness would just magically disappear?

If you say that a report, opinion, or feeling is well-founded, you mean that it is based on facts and can therefore be justified. Unfortunately your comment is based on a personal opinion and not facts so in my mind on this matter specifically I would say a well founded accusation would be that a young man had intent to seriously injure another human being.

So are you saying since there have been examples that every person in that community is racist then? You know many Canadian cities can provide similar examples of racially motivated offenses as well but that doesn't mean we put everyone in the same basket. Racism is an issue that we all need to face on both sides of the street, it isn't just white people who are guilty you know.

I dont think you personally are the problem and generally I do agree with a lot of your comments. Racism does need to be addressed I just feel that making accusations based on history and not fact is only adding fuel to the fire.

If anything you should be expressing your frustration at our lack of justice system. This kid will be free by the time hes 30 and will get to enjoy life once again while the victim is nothing but a memory to those who loved her. Sickening

[cyruslosco66]

heres the impact statements from the family of the woman that was murdered before sentancing of the
criminal who hit her with the trailer hitch

https://twitter.com/WillowFiddler/statu ... 74307?s=20