I was doing research for another class about how people with mental disabilities were being treated after committing a crime. I actually came across a very sad story of a mentally disabled woman tortured to death by people she thought were her friends. This is a very eye opening story and thanks to the new law passed by President Obama, prohibiting hate crimes against those who are mentally disabled, her so called "friends" will be punished as they should be.
She was not only murdered, but tortured prior to her death. Her "friends" did things to her such as making here drink urine and chemicals and writing a suicide note to go along with the idea that is was her who wanted to die. She was also physically abused. She was hit with various objects and her body was stuffed into a garbage can. I actually think that after someone commits these acts towards another person the real question is who really has a mental disability? Jennifer may not have been at the same learning level as her "friends", but she is not the one who felt the need to torture another human being. If I were evaluating the case I would say that her attackers had a serious mental problem that needed to be taken care of.
Here is a link to just one of the sites on the case and at the bottom of the site there are links to other information on the case. I think everyone who believes people with mental disabilities are not positive parts of society should read this article. It is not right for someone to be treated differently because they are different than you.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/17/crimesider/entry6216214.shtml
I found this article interesting and it actually reminded me of the incident that happened in Florida a couple years ago when those 8 high school girls beat of another girl, filmed it, and were going to post it on youtube. I tried to find an article online about it (see post below) and actually found a lot of information regarding that incident. I realize the girl being beaten was not mental handicap but the concept was the same. Anyone who is beating someone up is trying to prove they are the strong of the two individuals. Whether or not they are handicap or not the underlying meaning is similar. The law passed by Obama should be enforced and in the situation of the disabled girl being killed by her "friends" is just an example of how often act like this occur.
http://www.wftv.com/news/15817394/detail.html
I read the article and I just can't believe that they would do that to her. They acted like her friend and then turned around and killed her. I want to know their state of mind. I mean why act like someone's friend, I don't know how long they were acting like her friend, but why build that relationship and then turn around and over power her like that and murder her. Any murder is bad but really? This just doesn't make me sad it really makes me angry! I hope they serve a lot of time for this hate crime.