Aggravated Assault, Homosexual Hate, Assaulting Minor

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Oregon, USA

Since my boyfriend is unable to use a computer at this time, i am asking the question for him. we are a gay couple.

My boyfriend is 19 years old, and was living with one of his friends, who is 17 years old. One morning when he woke up, his friend came down the stairs and started calling him a faggot, which is absolutely not OK, so my boyfriend physically hit him a couple of times, and then left. A couple days have passed, and today (April 19, 2011) when my boyfriend went back to his friends house to retrieve his stuff so he can go somewhere else to live, his 'friend' pulled out a butchers knife, and swung it at my boyfriend, repeatedly calling him a faggot. My boyfriend didn't do anything, and just left.

Now, if my boyfriend or his friend were to get the police involved, what would happen? would my boyfriend get charged for assaulting a minor, even though it was in defence of a hate crime?

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Quoting jakesparrow0

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My question involves criminal law for the state of: Oregon, USA

Since my boyfriend is unable to use a computer at this time, i am asking the question for him. we are a gay couple.

My boyfriend is 19 years old, and was living with one of his friends, who is 17 years old. One morning when he woke up, his friend came down the stairs and started calling him a faggot, which is absolutely not OK, so my boyfriend physically hit him a couple of times, and then left.

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Calling someone a name is absolutely not OK...but it's appropriate to hit that person a couple of times? How does that work?

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A couple days have passed, and today (April 19, 2011) when my boyfriend went back to his friends house to retrieve his stuff so he can go somewhere else to live, his 'friend' pulled out a butchers knife, and swung it at my boyfriend, repeatedly calling him a faggot. My boyfriend didn't do anything, and just left.

Now, if my boyfriend or his friend were to get the police involved, what would happen? would my boyfriend get charged for assaulting a minor, even though it was in defence of a hate crime?

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I'm sorry - calling someone a faggot is not a hate crime per Oregon statute. Responding to that with violence was the absolutely WRONG thing to do. Your boyfriend could - and frankly should - be charged.

With that said, swinging a knife is also NOT ok. Both parties could end up being charged with crimes.

But to reiterate - what happened was NOT a hate crime.

yes, but if you were gay, you would do the same thing if somebody were to call you that.

Uh..no, no I wouldn't.

I'm a tad more mature than to let a mere word get me to the point where I retaliate physically....as are 99% of adults.

No, I think there are quite a few gay people who have the self-control to refrain from physical violence because someone called them a name. To imply otherwise is to insult the gay community.

People are called worse things than what was involved here and it still doesn't justify assaulting the person. Even in the case of a physical assault retaliation isn't justified. You just can't go around slugging people because they injured you physically or emotionally.