Judge rules against atheist victim and defends his Muslim attacker?

Question

http://www.abc27.com/story/16986440/midstate-judge-rules-against-attack-on-atheist-in-costume

The Atheists of Central Pennsylvania decided to walk in the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade. There was a zombie Pope and a zombie Muhammed. On YouTube, you can catch a scary moment. It's dark and distorted, but a Muslim man comes off the curb extremely offended at Muhammed being depicted in this way.

"He grabbed me, choked me from the back, and spun me around to try to get my sign off that was wrapped around my neck," said Ernie Perce, who donned the costume.
 
The Muslim man and Perce both called police to report a crime. Both kept walking, and a few blocks down found Sgt. Brian Curtis. He talked to both and came to this conclusion.

 
"Mr. Perce has the right to do what he did that evening, and the defendant in this case was wrong in confronting him," he said.

Talaag Elbayomy was charged with harassment, but District Judge Mark Martin threw it out after criticizing Perce, the victim, and even calling him a "doofus." The audio is also on YouTube.
 
Martin, who has done several tours of duty in the Middle East, said Perce would be put to death in those societies for his crime, but Perce wonders why that's relevant in this country.

"He let a man who is Muslim, because of his preference of his culture and his way of life, walk free from an attack," Perce said.

Fred · Accepted Answer

They should kick that judge of the bench. Perhaps they should send him to be a judge in afghanistan.

NDMA · Answer

If one is going to be rude and disrespectful to others beliefs they are going to get a negative response. Either Mr. Perce  is a total idiot or he dressed that way to provoke an incident... So when the predictable happens and an incident occurs, Mr. Perce the one provoking the situation calls the police - how childish.

Breaking News, Mr. Perce plans on walking in the killer tomatoes parade as a bottle of ketchup.... I wonder if he will call the police again once the tomatoes are done with him.

Justin H · Answer

I saw this article yesterday. The judge didn't "rule" against the atheist victim. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence. And the judge admonished the atheist for behavior which could be considered insensitive and provocative. As far as I'm concerned, the facts of the case have almost nothing to do with the fact the "attacker" was Muslim. 

As an atheist, I take no exception to this case. Perce was acting like an ***. If he was actually attacked, it would serve him right - not that it would mitigate the culpability of the attacker. But the article I read indicated a clear lack of evidence to support the claim of an attack.

? · Answer

The Muslim man was wrong.

Anonymous · Answer

Nice story.

Judge rules against atheist victim and defends his Muslim attacker?

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