A hateful crime in Potsdam

Paul Matott doesn't look like you. He doesn't look like me. Like lots of folks these days, he's got a lot of tattoos on his body. But what sets him apart from others is his face is literally a work of art.

I don't know his story. I don't know if the intricate etchings that blanket his face from the neck up mean something special. I don't know how, when or why he made the decision to become a man of color. I don't know him except to say hi when I walk by with my girl dogs and he is sitting in front of the Sleepy Hollow tattoo parlor in Potsdam where he works.

I know that he lives on my street. I know that he probably takes the same path home each night from Sleepy Hollow – shortcutting the trip by going through the Clarkson Inn parking lot and a small field to get to Hamilton Street. I know that three guys and a two-by-four jumped and beat him when he was making that walk Friday night. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20091020/NEWS05/310209948 I don't know why.

I know that the motive wasn't robbery. Paul says he had a laptop computer and $1,300 on him when they came out of the bushes wielding pepper spray and the lumber. When they ran away and jumped in a red SUV waiting for them on Bay Street, he still had the money and the laptop. So if they were robbers, they were really bad at it.

I am no Columbo, but it sure looks like this band of young punks staked out Paul's nightly route for the sole purpose of ambushing him and beating him up. I can only guess why: He didn't look like them. That is more disturbing than if the motive was robbery.

Robbery – as heinous as it might be – is a crime I can at least understand. Robbery solves a need for money. Beating someone because they are different solves no need that I can think of. I hope the police ask the punks when they catch them what pleasure they got out of their act - what need was solved by leaving Paul laying in the field.

And I do think they will be caught. If the motivation wasn't money, it had to be some sort of twisted bragging rights within a twisted social sphere where these kids hang out. So they have to tell people what they did or they lose whatever value the act had for them. The more people you have trying to keep the secret, the better the chance it will escape the twisted sphere.

The farther from ground zero the secret gets, the more likely it will find its way to a person whose sense of right and wrong leans more closely to the right. Maybe that will be a parent. Maybe a policeman. Maybe it will be someone who wants to claim the $500 reward being offered by Paul's boss. I can almost guarantee these kids will be caught. Their success on this very disturbing mission - like Paul's injuries - will only be temporary.

I don't know if their actions will be considered a “hate crime” and subject to tougher penalties. You might have to be gay, or Jewish, or black, or old, or member of some other traditional minority to be officially hated under federal law. I am not sure Paul qualifies. He's just a guy who made the choice not to look like me or you or the twisted punks who needed numbers and lumber to prove they were tough.