Tyler Clementi and the case against 'hate crimes'

However well-intentioned, these laws deny the value of all humans — and the hate in all crimes

Tish Durkin

Weren't you sickened by the recent death of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University freshman whose roommate secretly turned a webcam on him while he was having a sexual encounter with another male, streamed the images onto the Internet and thus apparently drove him to throw himself off the George Washington Bridge?

I was.

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Tish Durkin is a journalist whose work has appeared in publications including the New York Observer, the Atlantic Monthly, the National Journal, and Rolling Stone. After extensive postings in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, she is now based in Ireland.