The DA was aggressive because of the PC target. My latest in PJ Media:
A woman named Lauren Kirk-Coehlo was given five years probation last Friday for breaking windows at the Islamic Center of Davis, California, and putting bacon on its door handles. Ryan Couzens of the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office thundered:
We can’t live in a free society if people’s political views are expressed through violence.
That’s true. These kinds of attacks on mosques are stupid and never justified.
But the prosecution of this case only underscores the fact that when it comes to jihad attacks, authorities have lost all sense of proportion.
Twenty-two people are dead in Manchester and seven in London in recent jihad attacks. Another is dead in Jerusalem. There are more dead all the time: over 30,000 lethal jihad attacks worldwide since 9/11. And the Islamic Center of Davis is playing the victim, with help from authorities, over … bacon.
Kirk-Coehlo should certainly be made to pay for the broken windows and any other actual damage she caused. Nonetheless, a Muslim civil rights attorney, Saad Sweilem, highlighted the disproportionate nature of the sentencing when he crowed:
A felony conviction is something that will follow her for the rest of her life, and 5 years probation is no joke either.
Very well. But if Kirk-Coehlo had broken windows at a church, would she have gotten a felony conviction and five years probation?
According to CBS13, the DA was aggressive because of the target:
[T]he Yolo County District Attorney’s Office wanted Kirk-Coehlo to go to jail — especially considering the motive behind her attack.
…
It has been a difficult six months for the local Muslim community. Four local mosques have been attacked or vandalized — twice at the Islamic Center of Davis. There was also last week’s anti-Shariah march in Roseville.
So the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office wanted to make an example of Kirk-Coehlo — who happens to suffer from bipolar disorder. They didn’t get jail time for her, but they got a strong sentence nonetheless.
Maybe it has been “a difficult six months for the local Muslim community,” but in light of the numerous fake anti-Muslim hate crimes, all claims about mosque attacks and the like have to be regarded with skepticism. Moreover, one would think that in light of the steady stream of jihad attacks, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office would laugh off a few strips of bacon on the door handles of a mosque, and tell the mosque leaders to direct their attention to more important matters — such as making sure there are no jihad terror sympathizers and plotters from their communities.
That’s what the sentencing of Lauren Kirk-Coehlo is all about: shoring up the sagging narrative that the racist, “Islamophobic,” “far-right” bigots are threatening Muslims on a large scale, and that Muslims are more victims than victimizers.
A few strips of bacon and some broken windows next to thirty dead is a sad exercise in moral equivalence, but it’s all the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office had to work with, and so they ran with it. Yet while the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office devoted its manpower and resources to tracking down the perpetrator of a bacon hate crime, let’s step back for a moment and consider the larger picture.
How many Muslims are dead in the U.S. as a result of “far-right,” “Islamophobic” attacks? Why, none. None at all.
Are “far-right,” “Islamophobic” leaders in the U.S. calling for the destruction of the state and its replacement with an authoritarian system that denies equality of rights to women and others? Why, no. No they aren’t.
One wonders if the leaders of the Islamic Center of Davis were able to keep a straight face when they called the police to report this bacon hate crime. Did they shed tears at the horror of it all? Did they plead for protection from porcine persecution? Did they fulminate about what an inhospitable place the United States is for Muslims, and long for the green fields of human rights bastions such as Syria and Iraq?
Did they demand the full force of law enforcement power be directed against the real threat — not jihad terror, but “Islamophobia”?
Consider this: if Muslims in the U.S. really want to make sure that no more bacon is left at mosques, they can accomplish that very easily by working against jihadis in their own community. They can do everything they can to make sure no more jihad attacks happen, instead of constantly whining and playing the victim, and claiming that counter-terror efforts are unjustly singling them out.
If Muslims in the United States and elsewhere stood up resolutely against jihad terror, acknowledged its roots in Islamic texts and teachings, honestly worked to root out that understanding of Islam from its community and cooperated energetically with police against jihadis? No more non-Muslims would be so frustrated by the Muslim community’s duplicity and the government’s supine reaction to terror, and they would no longer do rude things like leave bacon at mosques….
Read the rest here.
Infidel Lass says
Yolo County District.
Yolo.
You Only Lock people up Once.
Because it’s for life.
overman says
So, the fact that this girl has a bipolar problem, is completely ignored by the judge.
The thing is, we [infidels] don’t have to go round attacking mosques, because are doing a better job. ln the last week alone the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul [800 yrs-old] was destroyed and the Grand Mosque in Mecca was just saved from an attack.
Here’s a bit of humor from the Saudi lnterior Minister –
“”They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country,” the ministry was quoted as saying.
“The security people, with the help of Almighty Allah, and then the unlimited support of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Crown Prince, will be able to foil these criminal schemes and arrest those involved in them.”
overman says
“because are doing a better job”
Should be:
“because muslims are doing a better job”
mortimer says
Lauren Kirk-Coehlo would have been wiser to express her disapproval of Islam by joining a group that protests Islamic terrorism and Islamization. She would have been valuable phoning people or stuffing envelopes or picketing or other tasks that make protests successful.
It’s a pity her efforts created so many bad feelings. This sort of protest makes it more difficult for law-abiding protesters.
TheBuffster says
Indeed, Mortimer.
somehistory says
Where are the other bi-polar people…the celebs who advocate for their relatives who have mental issues…I believe G. Close has a sister who has mental issues when this woman is being sentenced way harsher than others who have done worse things?.
There is a PSA that features celebs from the movie industry that explains what is needed. Why are they not working for this woman who suffers as their relatives suffer?
In the same place they are when women are being killed, children are being mutilated, and other horrors are visited upon the defenseless by moslums.
Ashley says
“These kinds of attacks on mosques are stupid and never justified.”
__________________
I wish you had left it at that, Robert.
Lauren Kirk-Coehlo vandalized a house of worship. There are consequences.
I resent Lauren Kirk-Coehlo’s actions. Her antics undermine the work here at JW. She fueled this perception of Islamophobia and gave it legs to run with.
As did Darren Osborne in the UK.
Here’s some perspective:
http://www.standard.net/Courts/2016/08/12/Man-ordered-to-apologize-in-sentence-for-busting-South-Ogden-church-windows
Salome says
Indeed, it’s not the bacon, it’s the broken windows–BUT the lady has bipolar disorder, and you’d think that’d count for something in defence. And I agree that any vandalism or violence (even of the mildest sort) against Muslim members of Western communities undermines the cause of the counterjihad. So-called ‘Islamophobia’ just makes those self-appointed victims stronger.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“Lauren Kirk-Coehlo vandalized a house of worship. There are consequences.”
When one identifies, tenuously or otherwise, with an ideology that has left a fourteen hundred year old trail of death and destruction then one should expect some kind of reaction, shouldn’t one? Furthermore, if it appears that those in power seem to be complicit in a malicious program then wouldn’t it be expected that reaction be even stronger? But alas, the general population does relatively little. And so the general population should be commended (?) for its stupefied lack of reaction.
BTW, I take great exception with your use of the phrase “a house of worship.” It smacks of moral equivalency. Erdoğan once eulogized this “house of worship” with the words: “the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…” Are you still sure this is just innocent little chapel on the prairie?
Religious toleration is not absolute nor is it absolution for wrong doing. The US government had no problem prosecuting the Mormons for polygamy. (And the Mormons seemed to have reformed in response.) John Locke clearly wrote in his letters on the subject that religious toleration was conditional. He stated that toleration should only be extended to those who themselves extend it. Geert Wilders
once cleverly summarized this with his, “don’t be so tolerant that you tolerate the intolerant.”
jewdog says
It was tactic of Nazi Germany to take cases of anti-German discrimination in Poland and Czechoslovakia and use them as a basis for propaganda against those countries in the lead-up to the invasions. The Left and Islamic groups are using actual cases of anti-Muslim activity, absurdly trivial in many cases such as this, in order to demonize all those who are opposed to Sharia, Islamic migration and other manifestations of Islamization. The important thing is to realize that this is a deliberate strategy, to keep a sense of proportion and not get sucked into the propaganda theatre..
DFD says
Bi-Polar disorder? So what! Muslims get far less for murdering, assaulting and torturing people – at least here in **western** Europe. And they are not real Muslims but people, just like you and me, but with a mental problem. A problem usually caused by an overdose of koranic-exposure.
Further: “Very well. But if Kirk-Coehlo had broken windows at a church, would she have gotten a felony conviction and five years probation?”
Nope! Definitely not!
—————————
On the contrary, it would have been admired as a work of art. Or at least as a modest, extremely restraint, feminist protest.
She’s no Joan of Arc, and yes, she has a problem, nevertheless, ***SHE ACTED***!!! That incidentally requires something called: Courage! Oh dear, oh dear oh dear, I must apologize. That was totally against our values which we must uphold. How silly and evil of me…
PS: I have to criticize her though: Why wasting bacon?
Annak says
She is actually more similar to Joan of Arc. than not.
Joan has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and a host of other possible mental disorders or sickness (associated with her handling of cows as a dairy maid) by modern observers in many fields of expertise.
She fooled the Dauphin by sounding ‘ spiritual’, actually never fought, just sat on her horse in full armour watching from afar.
Her ‘prophecy ‘ of a defining victory was proven false and she was a sitting duck, pulled off her horse and taken captive, Sadly she was executed when she refused to accept her ‘ voices’ were wrong.
She needed care !
DFD says
Indeed so. Still JoArc serves, occasionally, as a useful illustration. Nevertheless, thanks for pointing that out.
overman says
They used to say ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ but now most of the doctors are Muslim I find bacon works better.
Matthieu Baudin says
“…Ryan Couzens of the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office thundered: ‘We can’t live in a free society if people’s political views are expressed through violence’…”
Where is the violence, where is the vandalism? Causing a nuisance and delinquent behaviour, yes. How about a week or two’s worth of community service work instead of a woefully excessive 5 year suspended sentence?
Matthieu Baudin says
Alteration/error: In the response above I missed mention of the ‘broken windows’. This of course constitutes vandalism, so therefore replacement costs for the window and a months community service would be in place, but the 5 years suspended sentence still seems totally over the top.
don vito says
Yolo County must have a moslem outreach program. Moslems outreach to the D.A. to get what the moslems want.
TheBuffster says
“If Muslims in the United States and elsewhere stood up resolutely against jihad terror, acknowledged its roots in Islamic texts and teachings, honestly worked to root out that understanding of Islam from its community and cooperated energetically with police against jihadis? No more non-Muslims would be so frustrated by the Muslim community’s duplicity and the government’s supine reaction to terror, and they would no longer do rude things like leave bacon at mosques….”
I agree with this, Robert. A more visible and vocal and honest “official” Muslim voice rejecting the supremacist and anti-liberty tenets of Islam would help stave off these kinds of blowback against Muslims, although when a nutcase gets angry over a terrorist attack, even an outspoken Islamic reformist mosque might not stop that person from acting out.
May I suggest that the authorities may not just be concerned with maintaining a narrative by giving this woman 5 years probation for breaking the mosque windows (much more important, I think, than the bacon). They have to be concerned with trying to keep the situation from getting out of hand. When non-Muslims start vandalizing Muslims’ buildings, a tit-for-tat violence can soon get out of hand.
I think that those who violate property in retaliation for terrorism need to be treated with strictness. Perhaps 5 years probation is too strict – certainly making her pay for the damage would have been better – unless she doesn’t have and perhaps can’t hold a job and or have a means to pay.
However, the big question is: if a Muslim broke the windows of a synagogue and left bacon on the door handles (while wearing rubber gloves, of course), would the Muslim get the same punishment as this young woman? If a Muslim tore down and destroyed the cross in front of a Church, would he get the same punishment?
I have no problem with strict punishments for these kinds of crimes, because they’re crimes that fuel further such crimes that could easily escalate to ongoing violence between Muslims and non-Muslims – I mean on a much more dramatic basis than what’s happening now. It’s the job of law enforcement to prevent that. But the punishments for the same kind of crimes by members of different groups *have to be the same*. There must be no favoritism.
h says
I don’t think we’ll have long to find out. When they go on jihad in a more organized way, they’ll hit the churches and synagogues first.
TheBuffster says
If this girl woman had vandalized a Christian church, the added danger of it sparking a retaliation that could spark a further retaliation and on and on wouldn’t be a concern. She would just be some woman who was angry at her church or the Church, with no potential for starting a chain of retaliations between Muslims and non-Muslims. She would have been just one angry person, acting out against her own.
That’s why I think the punishment for her attack on a mosque *should* in fact be more serious than if she’d attacked a church. And that’s why I say that the real question to ask is what would happen to a *Muslim* attacking a synagogue or church. That’s the actual equivalent case.
TheBuffster says
Ooops! I didn’t mean to say “girl woman”, I just failed to delete the “girl” when I decided to call her a woman. But maybe “girl woman” is appropriate after all since her action was not what I’d call “mature”.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
She was misrepresented. She should appeal, considering the outrageous sentence.
She is bipolar. Bipolar disorder is considered a psychosis. The argument could have been made that her treatment to date was inadequate. She should have pleaded “not guilty.”
hugh says
If Muslims find bacon so abhorrent, why does Mohammed have ‘ham’ in the middle of his name?
Carolyne says
Breaking windows in a mosque or a church or even someone’s home is a criminal matter. But one man’s bacon is another man’s breakfast.