The Comments Section is Angry About the Roques Situation and Court Decisions So Far

Over 1400 comments about the decision to drop the hate crime enhancement (counts from April 28th).

Nearly all the comments were criticizing the decision to drop the hate crime enhancement charges in the Roques case against Nicholas Weber. A few people were arguing that it’s hard to prove a hate crime, and that it’s not enough that Weber is a racist, and also committed a violent crime — that is, being a racist, making a racist statement, and then attacking persons of this race, is not sufficient to constitute a hate crime. (One person argued that it required motivation to go out and specifically commit a hate crime.)

Popular sentiment was incredulous at the removal of hate crime enhancements. To the average person, this situation seems to be an obvious hate crime, and that Nick Weber is a racist.

Many posts were angry at the judge, The Hon. Neetu Badhan-Smith. The general sentiment was that her decision goes against common sense. The argument was made during the hearing by the defense attorney, Alexandra Viksman.

A few were upset at the DA, Paul Gascon. Because deputy DA Paul Kim was not mentioned in the article, he was not criticized.

I’ll update this post with details, soon.

References

https://sanfernandosun.com/2023/04/19/hate-crime-enhancements-dropped-in-alleged-assault-of-filipino-family-case-heading-to-trial/

https://news.yahoo.com/hate-crime-charges-dropped-against-220510398.html (1300+ comments)

https://www.reddit.com/r/asiantwoX/comments/12uy2w4/hate_crime_charges_dropped_against_man_who/ (14 comments)

https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/12uy2ej/hate_crime_charges_dropped_against_man_who/ (34 comments)

https://www.reddit.com/r/AsianMasculinity/comments/12trgc4/hate_crime_charges_dropped_against_man_who/ (34 comments)

https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/12xu5wi/hate_crime_charges_dropped_against_man_who/ (53 comments)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CrMuVy2pLCR/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CrPrH3xAl4d/

Other Hate Crime Charges

Miya Ponsetto

James Lee Ramsey

Aqweel Akbar Khan

Teaunte Bailey (no HC charge)

Jarrod Powell