AMISH LONG HAIR WINS HATE CASE

     WSJ - NYT - In U. S .District Court in Cleveland, Ohio on September 20, 2012, 16  people of an Amish group from Bergholz, Ohio were declared guilty of a hate crime.  A jury deliberated for 5 days before declaring them guilty as charged.  The crime?  Cutting off the long hair of other Amish against their wishes.  Long Amish hair is a sign of devotion to their  religion, the longer the more devout.   Attorney Steven Dettelbach of the U. S. Northern District of Ohio stated "Our community and our nation must have zero tolerance for this type of intolerance".  The defiant group cut the long hair of fellow Amish with scissors and clippers usually used by them for cutting and trimming horse

hair.  The "head" Amish defendant, Bishop Samuel Mullet, Sr., has a history of ordering his Amish brethren be beaten with paddles or confined in chicken coops for violations of strict religious principles.  Come January 24, 2013, the 16 men and women involved in the hate crime could be sentenced to as much as life imprisonment. This is America, not the religious world of the Amish.