Some time ago the Bay Shore Gay and Lesbian Center for Youths was vandalized.  Its front door was broken and its van had its tires slashed, its windows busted out, and its sideview mirrors mangled.

Today I read that arrests in the case have been made and…surprise, surprise, the police have in their impartial wisdom determined that the vandals had not a prejudiced bone in their bodies after all…

Cops: Vandalism at gay center not hate crime

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy called the vandalism at a Bay Shore gay and lesbian center for youths an "attack against the gay community."

Gov. David A. Paterson dispatched the state’s commissioner of human rights to visit the site and deliver a message calling for acceptance.

And the Suffolk County Police Hate Crimes Unit investigated last week’s incident as a hate crime.

It turns out the vandalism at the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth Center was not a hate crime after all, police said Tuesday.

What a relief to know that!  Because…er…because…  Well because the police just say so…

Police declined to say what led them to determine the crime was not bias-related.

I see.  Three men and a woman, two of them 21 years old, one 20 and one 19, decided to slash a van’s tires completely at random.  And then they broke out all its windows.  And then they mangled the sideview mirrors.  And then…again completely at random, they decided to break out a door that only happened to belong to the same group that owned the van.  Just…on a lark…  It had nothing to do with the fact that the van had the Long Island LGBT Youth center logo on it.  And that door…it was just a coincidence that it also happened to be the door to the Long Island LGBT Youth center.  There was no anti-gay animus involved here.  Take our word for it.  Because we insist you take our word for it.

Police arrested three men and a woman, all from Bay Shore, Monday in connection with the vandalism and charged each of them with second-degree criminal mischief. None of the four was charged with a hate crime.

Mischief…

Mischief…

But seriously…what more could attacking homosexuals amount to anyway, other then mischief?  You say "hate crime" like its a bad thing…

[Update...]  Reports are coming out now that two of the suspects were former clients of the center, who had been asked to leave for an as yet unspecified disruptive behavior…more then three years ago.