Amish leader, 15 followers convicted of hate crimes in beard attacks

[rug]

September 20th, 2012
03:27 PM ET
Post by: CNN news blog editor Mallory Simon, CNN's Jason Hanna

Sixteen members of a breakaway Amish community in rural eastern Ohio, including its leader, were convicted of federal hate crimes Thursday for the forcible cutting of Amish men's beards and Amish women's hair.

Sam Mullet Sr. and the 15 followers were found guilty of conspiracy to violate federal hate-crime law in connection with what authorities said were the religiously motivated attacks on several fellow Amish people last year.

The verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Cleveland following several days of jury deliberation and a trial that began in late August, a U.S. attorney's office said.

Prosecutors said the 15 followers, at Mullet's instruction, shaved the beards and cut the hair of Amish people who had left his group over various religious disagreements. Five attacks happened in four Ohio counties between September and November 2011, authorities said.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/20/amish-leader-convicted-of-hate-crimes-in-beard-attacks/?hpt=ju_c1

[louis-t]

1. Jeez, they got Romneyed.

[kestrel91316]

2. Despicable behavior. Apparently this guy turned pentecostal-ish and

forgot about things like humility and nonaggression and such that are major tenets of the Amish creed. I guess he wanted the authority to shun the community even though they hadn't given it to him, lol. THEY shunned HIM and he got bent out of shape.

Dude. The Amish choose their leaders (bishops) locally and they didn't choose you, so you don't get to make the rules.