Hate Crimes Rear Their Ugly Head in Northeast Wisconsin

     Hate crimes are a very real danger here in Northeast Wisconsin. That became quite clear this month, when a judge rejected an atrocious plea deal that would have let an atrocious criminal off the hook. 

     I can't think of any case in which letting someone who threw another individual into a fire plead down to a misdemeanor is appropriate. That becomes even more true when it is a man throwing a woman into a fire, when that man is a corrections officer who should know better as someone whose job it is to protect others, and when that attack is an apparently random one in which the only plausible reasoning was the sexual orientation of the victim.

     Still, DA David Lasee, a Republican who apparently hates gay people, was willing to let Shane Nolan, a 31-year-old bigot with a temper, off with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist at best, to allow him to live a normal life while the victim suffered permanent physical and emotional damage, without even consulting the victim or her family. That is bullshit; that is cruel. When Judge Kendall Kelley is the one with common sense in any matter, you know there's a huge problem. The case will head for a trial later this year.

     Sadly, this is far from the first time Northeast Wisconsin has suffered the wrath of hate criminals. One key example is Michael T. Anderson, who possessed chemicals like urea nitrate, which was used in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing; Aryan Nation and Nazi SS items; and an illegal firearm; causing a panic when police were called to his home over an incident of domestic violence back in 2018. A middle-aged man who was expelled from middle school for racist remarks and still lives with his mom, his criminal history, which ranges from possession of meth to firearms violations to animal cruelty and endless instances of domestic abuse, began in 1997, when he became the first person in Green Bay history to be convicted of a hate crime for spraying mace in the faces of a gay couple.

     These are just two examples of the hate criminals who live in a city with a moderate population size of just over 100,000. Hate crimes are rearing their ugly head in Northeast Wisconsin because they are rearing their ugly head nationwide and, truly, worldwide. Hate crimes only occur so frequently because we allow this rhetoric to exist under the guise of free speech. Free speech does not apply to hate speech, and we need to get serious about reminding these degenerates that they are subhuman.