Beard-Cutting Case Tests Limits of Hate Crime Law

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/27/159985226/beard-cutting-case-tests-limits-of-hate-crime-law

they do this but not a finger lifted to quell the right wing juggernaut of hate heading for us all.

Sam Mullet, in the front yard of his home in Bergholz, Ohio, last year, is one of 16 people charged in beard- and hair- cutting attacks on fellow Amish. Mullet denies being involved in these attacks

Sam Mullet, in the front yard of his home in Bergholz, Ohio, last year, is one of 16 people charged in beard- and hair- cutting attacks on fellow Amish. Mullet denies being involved in these attacks

Sixteen members of an Ohio Amish sect are set to go on trial in federal court Monday in Cleveland. The defendants are accused of violating U.S. hate crime laws by cutting the hair and beards of detractors, a humiliating reprimand for the devout.

Chin hair, according to Jacob Troyer, an Amish craftsman in Holmes County, Ohio, is a rite of passage for young Amish men.

"When they join church to get baptized, they grow a beard up to the bottom of the ear. They usually have an inch or so of space there. When they marry, they grow that together," Troyer says.

Troyer likes talking about the traditions he's grown up with here. But ask him about the beard cutting attacks that occurred here and in several neighboring central Ohio counties last year, and his demeanor quickly changes.

"I'd say it's a problem," he says. Troyer waves away the microphone and silently returns to his work. It's a sign of just how controversial the case is in Ohio's Amish community, which is the largest in the country.

i'm speechless.

the world and the country are going to hell in a handbasket. just who are the one's riding point?