U of Colo SAE House Firebombed
 

U. of Colo. frat house firebombed; brawl follows

BOULDER, Colo. — Someone tossed a firebomb into a fraternity house about a block from the University of Colorado, setting off a brawl in a nearby alley that sent one man to the hospital, police said.

...Huntley said it was probably not a hate crime, but more likely stemmed from a feud between the fraternity and residents of a nearby apartment or with another fraternity. No arrests had been made, and police had no individual suspects.

A jug of charcoal starter fluid with a burning firecracker attached was thrown into the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house through an open door about 2:15 a.m., Huntley said. Someone inside pushed it back out with a wet mop.

"We're very, very fortunate that nobody was hurt," she said.

(Sorry, I can't find the page I copied to post the entire link:rolleyes: )

OMG!!!!! That's insane!

Good job to the person who got it out of the house!

Someone explain to me what this 'hate crime' aspect is all about?

I think the following is the article AGDLynn quoted from:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...EXwSgD93JHN1G0

Here's another, slightly different one:
http://media.www.thecampuspress.com/...-3469667.shtml

.
And a slightly earlier one:
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008...ht-at-cu-frat/

This seems like a highly serious incident. Firebombing's no joke.

I found it but your links are okay!

That is so scary and awful! I'm glad no one was hurt.

If I were a prosecutor . . .
 

This is arson. If somebody dies it is a homicide, most likely murder. If I were a prosecutor I would charge this not only as arson, but as attempted murder, one count per resident.

But I am merely a probate attorney.

Felony-murder.

That is correct, in a perfect world the felony murder rule would apply. But see also a Texas case, I believe it is People vs. Taylor, a 1986 or so case involving arson and death. They didn't apply the FMR.

A person can make a hate crime against greeks. Hate crimes happen against members of a social group. Most of the time you think of race, religion, sexuality, or maybe gender. But if something hurt me simply for being greek I would consider it a hate crime.

I know it's shoddy legal research on my part, so please correct me if this is wrong. I checked Wikipedia for a definition of hate crimes laws, and while the definition doesn't cite to a particular statute, it defines a hate crime as the following: "A hate crime is a criminal offense committed against a person or property motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a racial group, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, or disability."

I don't see social group in there, and would have a hard time interpreting the hate crimes concept so broadly unless there was specific language somewhere alluding that sort of protection.

Am. Jur. says:
So unless Colorado's hate crime statute is different than the norm I tend to agree, I don't see the basis for considering this a hate crime.

No, from what I can see Colorado's definition of a hate crime does not involve social groups. I am getting this information from here : http://www.cuah.org/what.htm.
Also I think it is important to mention that hate crime or not this is a horrible thing that happened and I am so glad no one got hurt from the firebomb.Does anybody know if further actions are being taken to keep the fraternity safe, besides the disciplinary actions?

Just because you'd consider it a hate crime doesn't mean that the law would consider it a hate crime.

I think everyone else is correct. Colorado law appears to include the following under "bias-motivated crimes" (hate crimes): "race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation." Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-9-121.

I don't know of any hate crime statute that extends as far as "social groups."