Another TS murder: Indy ts named layia aka honey

[MrsKellyPierce]

How sad, and so close to home.

[werwt22]

That site is kinda depressing but its definitely informative.

[daidone]

well...let's not assume that they did absolutely nothing at all. Yes, it is wrong and nobody deserves to get killed, but you might want to understand they might have been robbing the tricks/johns (which happens here a lot) and one of them came to get revenge.
Just a thought, not to spread rumors, but sometimes there is a story behind most occurences like this.
Not trying to be negative, but some of you jumped to conclusions and made it sound like "poor TS, she did absolutely nothing wrong and was sitting home being an angel"...there might be a story behind this all.

[meghanchavalier]

There's always a story behind acts of violence, but murdering two people is not the answer. They even killed their dog. I only live an hour from Indianapolis, so this one hits closer to home. The sad thing is that Indiana has no hate crime laws so if and when they do find the individual(s) who did this, the hate crime part of it is completely off the table. This coming year Stopping The Hate will be doing everything we can to try to get a Hate Crime Law in Indiana, because it's necessary for all states to have one, especially in these crazy times we live in. With Hate Crime Laws intact crime rates against our community go down, so if you visit our website you can find out if your state has one. The families of both victims in this horrible tragedy are in our prayers.

[SarahG]

None of us know for sure if in fact it was a hate crime.

And even if it was, hate crime law is important mostly for three things; oversight, jurisdiction control and sentencing... when local communities are known to be quite bad (at times) in handling cases where certain demographics are victims.

I don't know of anything that would indicate that hate crime law actually helps with the amount of hate crimes that are committed, but that doesn't mean there isn't such a correlation.

[Jay Jay]

I lived in Indianapolis and killings there are a regular occourance on the near east and north side. Most of them have to do with drugs but even if it was not the police will call it that. My prayers to the families . It is unfortunate when people are cut down in the prime of their life

[daidone]

There's always a story behind acts of violence, but murdering two people is not the answer. They even killed their dog. I only live an hour from Indianapolis, so this one hits closer to home. The sad thing is that Indiana has no hate crime laws so if and when they do find the individual(s) who did this, the hate crime part of it is completely off the table. This coming year Stopping The Hate will be doing everything we can to try to get a Hate Crime Law in Indiana, because it's necessary for all states to have one, especially in these crazy times we live in. With Hate Crime Laws intact crime rates against our community go down, so if you visit our website you can find out if your state has one. The families of both victims in this horrible tragedy are in our prayers.

see what I mean? how do you know it was a hate crime? you people love to make accusations and fabricate stories. If a straight guy kills a gay man over money, according to you, since he was gay, it's a "hate crime". That is a pathetic view and belief. People need to snap out of the hazy world they live in.

[T Oracle]

The sad thing is that Indiana has no hate crime laws so if and when they do find the individual(s) who did this, the hate crime part of it is completely off the table.

I have been quite soundly beaten by a TS from the Philippines that changing the law is but a small step. That won't stop the next murder - OK so he'll get 50 years instead of 40.

The big step is changing society.

[dan_drade]

It's always very sad and depressing to hear news like this.
I agree with T Oracles post. The only problem is that it will take several generations before society will change enough for the GBLT community to feel that we can all live in peace.

[SarahG]

That won't stop the next murder - OK so he'll get 50 years instead of 40.

That's not really why hate crime laws are important however.

Sure, as far as the biased media is concerned- hate crime law is all about the sentencing, but sentencing is really a very small part of what hate crime law can do.

I, personally, would love to have hate crime laws altered so that they have nothing to do with sentencing. Hate crime laws are important because it allows the feds to either take cases over in some situations, or to have oversight over how local communities handle certain types of cases.

It is extremely easy to show that in some communities, law enforcement have a problem with respecting trans citizens. This can take many forms; cops that beat up trans people for sport (like that cop in memphis who used handcuffs as brass knuckles on the girl who was murdered down there, while she was detained), there are cops that assume tgirls are all addicts and therefore refuse to properly investigate the case (blowing it off as "well, she's a druggie/addict so who cares if she's killed")...

...and then when these cases go to court (most don't), we have judges in some communities that allow anyone alleged of killing a tgirl get off as long as they lie and say "they were tricked" even when it was clear that was not what happened. Conviction rates of violent crime involving trans victims are probably disproportionately bad- but we'll never know the statistics of how bad of a problem it is, without hate crime status in every state to track it!

With proper hate crime law in place, the feds could come in and take every case where a trans person is a victim of violent crime, to make sure it is 1- property investigated, and 2- properly prosecuted.

Even if the only result is accurate crime statistics & the ending criminals' abilities of getting off under "gay panic", then that is a giant step forward- and a much needed one. To think that it could possibly be a good idea, in any community, to allow violent criminals to get away just by pretending to have gay panic (even in cases where it blatantly was not a gay panic scenario) is absurd. Does anyone want violent criminals, rapists, murders and so forth roaming the streets? I forget who it was who already mentioned that point on this topic before, but it is an important one and one that few people seem to notice.

I guess its more important to complain about how some violent criminals might get 10 years instead of 5 whenever a victim by coincidence appears to be of a "special" demographic.