Holy over-charging, Batman! A federal prosecutor has charged the San Diego synagogue shooter with an astounding 109 separate hate crime charges. Clearly this asswipe was motivated by anti-Semitism in his shooting spree that killed one and injured 3 more, but 109 hate crime charges? Did he even do 109 things that are illegal? The math doesn’t add up and badly overcharging a suspect is a sure way to guarantee he is acquitted.
Last month 19-year-old John T. Earnest opened fire in the Chabad of Poway synagogue near san Diego. He killed a woman and wounded a young girl, her uncle, and the Rabbi. Police say he fired 8 shots before his gun jammed and he was chased off by an armed Border Patrol agent who happened to be a member of the synagogue.
Earnest was arrested and as The LA Times reports, federal prosecutors brought the boom down on him:
U.S. Atty. Robert S. Brewer Jr. announced Thursday in San Diego the filing of 109 federal hate-crime charges against John T. Earnest stemming from last month’s shooting at Chabad of Poway, which killed a woman and wounded three other people.
Let’s assume that every crime Earnest is accused of is getting a hate crime enhancement. He was formally charged with 1 count of murder and 3 counts of attempted murder, so that’s potentially 4 hate crime charges. Maybe the feds have also tacked on 4 counts of denying the victims their civil rights, which would bring the count to 8 hate crimes, but that still leaves 101 unaccounted for.
Earnest is also suspected, but not charged, for an arson at a mosque, so it’s possible the feds included that. Still, that only makes for 9 hate crime charges.
Even if the feds consider each round he fired as a separate act of hatred, that still leaves things well shy of the 109 counts against Earnest. They would have to count every step he took on synagogue property, every breath he took, and every time he blinked as an individual hate crime to come close to that astronomical number.
By comparison, Robert Gregory Bowers who killed 11 and wounded 7 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October was charged with 29 federal hate crimes. Is what Earnest did three times more hateful? Did he just bring more hate to the crime than Bowers?
Don’t get me wrong, Earnest committed a hate crime by targeting Jews, but this charge-a-polooza is a huge waste of taxpayer money. Are they actually going to try to prosecute 109 separate hate crimes? That would take years and millions of dollars but wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference in Earnest’s fate.
This loser is going to be convicted of murder and attempted murder and spend the rest of his life in jail without the possibility of parole. California has the death penalty but they don’ use it so even if he’s sentenced to death he won’t executed. 109 hate crime convictions will not increase the punishment he will receive. All of these extra charges won’t extend his life so he serves a longer sentence. What’s the point of this?
If the feds have a quota system and need to dish out a certain number of hate crimes each month, there’s plenty of leftist kooks who assault people for wearing MAGA and/or having a different political opinion. There’s also tons of black-on-white violence that could use a hate crime charge or two. Hell, throw a couple of those Jussie Smolett’s way for faking a hate crime by framing non-existent white Trump supporters.
