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gordonzolaDepartment 26 at the Hall of Justice. I’ve spent too much time here in the last year. It’s where I served my jury duty before I got excused. Twice. It’s where I’ve watched the proceedings, mostly postponements, in the assault and hate crime trial of the man who beat up my friends.*
Jack Broughton plead guilty to the felony assault and hate crime charges on May 13, ending a 21 month legal ordeal. At the sentencing hearing, my friends finally got to tell the judge how the crime had affected them: the pain, the post traumatic stress disorder, the missed work, the fear, the personality changes, the clinical depression, the loss of freedom and safety, the inability to be present for family and children, etc. Despite the fact that other lawyers in the court, there for unrelated cases, were fighting back tears at this testimony the judge didn’t seem to care.
It’s truly a mark of the limits of identity politics when you have a lesbian judge presiding over a hate crime trial, a lesbian attorney defending the man pleading guilty to assault and hate crime charges, and a white, straight, guy prosecuting the case like he’s on a mission. My friends described the beating which, in addition to the serious emotional damage, left one bleeding and unconscious on 11th Street and the other with severe pain throughout her body. They contrasted the many ways they have been, and continue to be, held prisoners by the assault and the way in which Jack Broughton will not be. Because even though this was the sentencing hearing, everyone knew in advance what Broughton would get: home detention for a year and three years probation. No jail time whatsoever.
I’m not a fan of jail. I think it can be a finishing school for haters and abusers to learn new tricks. The concept of rehabilitation is more of a joke than anything despite the under-funded attempts by some. It’s also clear that if Jack Broughton wasn’t working class, the case against him would likely have ended very differently, My friends, also working class, had community resources** that Broughton didn’t, and a mostly clear cut case, but someone with the money to spend could have made this lengthy ordeal even worse.
So really it’s a question of punishment. It’s not so much that I don’t agree with the judge’s ruling that Broughton, and possibly society, will be better served by attending anger management classes at the VA and not going to jail. It’s the unfairness that he can continue with life when his victims could not. He can stay in touch with his children while my co-worker had to withdraw in many ways due to her depression. He can continue to work while both women he beat up had to take extra student loans due and drop work shifts due to their inability to function normally for months after the beating. He can still walk the streets in his large, strong body feeling safe in a way that my friends no longer can and in a way that would be unlikely if he was in jail.
In a tearful statement that became necessary after the moving testimony of the victims scared his defense attorney, Broughton blamed all of the events on alcohol and actually said, "I’m just so sorry so many other people had to be involved in my epiphany." Judge Kay Tsenin seemed to agree because when the prosecuting attorney asked that Broughton’s counseling include classes on sensitivity training, she said that the racist, anti-gay, and misogynist things he was yelling as he kicked my friend’s bleeding unconscious body were "the alcohol talking" and denied the motion.
Many observers felt the judge could use a little sensitivity training herself. The incident started when Broughton’s girlfriend*** hit one of my friends in the face and swung at her again, missing, but trying to do damage. My friend decked her and put her hands up to say, according to her testimony (from my memory) "ok enough". Judge Tsenin redefined this, for the record, as making a "safe" sign which seems like a celebratory thing to do. I honestly have no other interpretation for this but as the judge filing this away in her head as "something Those People must do after beating someone up", justifying her translation of this action into something which makes no sense whatsoever.
But at least it’s over. And it ended with more serious consequences than my friends feared at the beginning when the first DA dropped the hate crime charges and seemed reluctant to prosecute at all. Though he hurt them, in the end Broughton fucked with the wrong people. He attacked people who grew up in San Francisco, are rooted in their multicultural communities and families, and able to speak powerfully in their own defense. They and their friends**** were unwilling to let the case drop and put all the pressure they could manage on the DA and judges to not ignore what had happened.
Without that pressure, I doubt things would have gotten even this far.
*I wrote previous entries about this here and here . Seeming contradictions are explained by the defense attorney and the judge changing during the last 21 months.
** Community United Against Violence did an amazing job of support, legal consulting, and mobilizing people to attend trial dates. Anyone with extra money could do worse than donating there.
***Who, rumor has it, has pending domestic violence charges against him.
****I can’t remember the LJ name of the BAR reporter who was there for every moment of the legal proceedings, but this was the same person who took all those great pictures at City Hall of the weddings. Anyone?
Jack Broughton plead guilty to the felony assault and hate crime charges on May 13, ending a 21 month legal ordeal. At the sentencing hearing, my friends finally got to tell the judge how the crime had affected them: the pain, the post traumatic stress disorder, the missed work, the fear, the personality changes, the clinical depression, the loss of freedom and safety, the inability to be present for family and children, etc. Despite the fact that other lawyers in the court, there for unrelated cases, were fighting back tears at this testimony the judge didn’t seem to care.
It’s truly a mark of the limits of identity politics when you have a lesbian judge presiding over a hate crime trial, a lesbian attorney defending the man pleading guilty to assault and hate crime charges, and a white, straight, guy prosecuting the case like he’s on a mission. My friends described the beating which, in addition to the serious emotional damage, left one bleeding and unconscious on 11th Street and the other with severe pain throughout her body. They contrasted the many ways they have been, and continue to be, held prisoners by the assault and the way in which Jack Broughton will not be. Because even though this was the sentencing hearing, everyone knew in advance what Broughton would get: home detention for a year and three years probation. No jail time whatsoever.
I’m not a fan of jail. I think it can be a finishing school for haters and abusers to learn new tricks. The concept of rehabilitation is more of a joke than anything despite the under-funded attempts by some. It’s also clear that if Jack Broughton wasn’t working class, the case against him would likely have ended very differently, My friends, also working class, had community resources** that Broughton didn’t, and a mostly clear cut case, but someone with the money to spend could have made this lengthy ordeal even worse.
So really it’s a question of punishment. It’s not so much that I don’t agree with the judge’s ruling that Broughton, and possibly society, will be better served by attending anger management classes at the VA and not going to jail. It’s the unfairness that he can continue with life when his victims could not. He can stay in touch with his children while my co-worker had to withdraw in many ways due to her depression. He can continue to work while both women he beat up had to take extra student loans due and drop work shifts due to their inability to function normally for months after the beating. He can still walk the streets in his large, strong body feeling safe in a way that my friends no longer can and in a way that would be unlikely if he was in jail.
In a tearful statement that became necessary after the moving testimony of the victims scared his defense attorney, Broughton blamed all of the events on alcohol and actually said, "I’m just so sorry so many other people had to be involved in my epiphany." Judge Kay Tsenin seemed to agree because when the prosecuting attorney asked that Broughton’s counseling include classes on sensitivity training, she said that the racist, anti-gay, and misogynist things he was yelling as he kicked my friend’s bleeding unconscious body were "the alcohol talking" and denied the motion.
Many observers felt the judge could use a little sensitivity training herself. The incident started when Broughton’s girlfriend*** hit one of my friends in the face and swung at her again, missing, but trying to do damage. My friend decked her and put her hands up to say, according to her testimony (from my memory) "ok enough". Judge Tsenin redefined this, for the record, as making a "safe" sign which seems like a celebratory thing to do. I honestly have no other interpretation for this but as the judge filing this away in her head as "something Those People must do after beating someone up", justifying her translation of this action into something which makes no sense whatsoever.
But at least it’s over. And it ended with more serious consequences than my friends feared at the beginning when the first DA dropped the hate crime charges and seemed reluctant to prosecute at all. Though he hurt them, in the end Broughton fucked with the wrong people. He attacked people who grew up in San Francisco, are rooted in their multicultural communities and families, and able to speak powerfully in their own defense. They and their friends**** were unwilling to let the case drop and put all the pressure they could manage on the DA and judges to not ignore what had happened.
Without that pressure, I doubt things would have gotten even this far.
*I wrote previous entries about this here and here . Seeming contradictions are explained by the defense attorney and the judge changing during the last 21 months.
** Community United Against Violence did an amazing job of support, legal consulting, and mobilizing people to attend trial dates. Anyone with extra money could do worse than donating there.
***Who, rumor has it, has pending domestic violence charges against him.
****I can’t remember the LJ name of the BAR reporter who was there for every moment of the legal proceedings, but this was the same person who took all those great pictures at City Hall of the weddings. Anyone?
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 10:34 am (UTC)My overdeveloped sense of justice is disappointed that he won't serve any time. I agree with you that jail isn't always the answer, but it's hard to not want him to get his ass kicked back.
I hope that your friends are able to benefit even more from the massive community support and get through the hardest part, which is getting their lives back. May they be greatly blessed.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 10:57 am (UTC)On the other, I fear it's just a matter of time before hating the people in power becomes a hate crime. "Striking union members were arrested yesterday when they referred to CEO Blah Blah as a filthy rich pig". much of the legislation is written with these things in mind, but there's no guarantee, imho, that they won't get turned on their heads. Plus, this type of legislation ignores class as does a lot of multi-cultural/anti-oppression work.
But as for right now, I think they are needed. I do think without the extra enhancement this would have been brushed aside with even less penalty. I retain full "I told you so" rights for the future however.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 11:24 am (UTC)ANY violent assault is illegal. Once you bring the concept of a thought crime into the equation, I worry about the same over-the-top thing you're talking about. It also bothers me because it is often arbitrarily applied.
I understand that as a society we want a BIGGER punishment for people who do certain things, like the truck-dragging murder in Texas or the Matthew Shepherd case, but the fact remains that no matter whether the perpetrators hated blacks or homosexuals, it is ALREADY illegal to kill people. Those cases involved torture. It doesn't matter WHY they hated them, or even that they did; what matters is that they brutally killed other people.
I just forsee a time when every common brawl becomes a "hate crime."
no subject
Date: 2004-05-18 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 10:58 am (UTC)I'm so sorry that your friends had to endure this ordeal, and also that God hasn't magically struck this abuser with lightning yet.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 11:11 am (UTC)I hate living here. I want to go home. Wait, I am home.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 12:02 pm (UTC)also i think the reporter you're looking for is
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 12:43 pm (UTC)Why am I not surprised?
(Give me a fucking break.)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 04:39 pm (UTC)just to clarify.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 08:53 pm (UTC)also broughton added that he is an awkward dancer, and that night, despite all his nervousness, they were dancing...the club's rejection really hurt him, cut deep to that core.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-18 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-19 01:17 pm (UTC)[angry muttering]
no subject
Date: 2004-05-22 04:48 pm (UTC)It's not clear that the criminal courts can deliver justice in this kind of situation; putting the assailant in jail might be gratifying but the world would still be a dangerous, violent place. But there's one kind of injustice the legal system *can* remedy--the people Broughton assaulted can and should pursue civil litigation against him. He's employed? Garnish his pay. He has a house? His homeowners' insurance can pay. If they want to follow this up, though, they should talk to a lawyer *now*, because there's a statute of limitations for torts and it's one year from the date of the injury.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-22 05:25 pm (UTC)I was speaking more of the irony of concern for the inconvenience of the perpetrator of such a violent crime and the absence of the same for the victims. especially with the delay after delay granted by four different judges. I agree that the criminal courts are more a place for potential punishment, not justice.