Nothing to Like About Hate Crimes Laws

Human Events ^ | 5-1-09 | Gary Bauer

[Wolf13]

Our last president was ridiculed for claiming to have peered into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and gotten, in his words, a “sense of his soul.” Our current president wants to do something even more audacious: to peer into your mind to get a sense of your thoughts. And if he finds them insufficiently accepting of homosexuality, he may want to lock you up.

And he could get the chance. This week, the House of Representatives passed The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HR 1913), which adds gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability to the list of protected categories under federal hate crimes law. An identical hate crimes bill was introduced two years ago but was stopped by President Bush’s veto pen. This year’s bill is expected to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Obama.

Social liberals claim to value privacy above almost everything else. “Keep the government out of our bedrooms and out of our wombs,” they holler. But their respect for privacy has its limits, and liberals encourage government intrusion into your head when they want to punish you for thoughts they find particularly contemptible.

There are many problems with this legislation, not least that if it becomes law it would federalize law enforcement by allowing the federal government to intervene in local criminal matters when a crime is deemed to be motivated by hatred of this or that disadvantaged group.

Hate crimes laws, the first of which was passed in 1968, are neither necessary nor constitutionally authorized. But Obama and his Democratic allies are masters of the political art of appeasing powerful constituencies, especially ones with penchants for violent outbursts when they don’t get their way.

[BipolarBob]

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

[G Larry]

The idiots here in Colorado that decided that a victim of “Rape by deception” was guilty of a “hate crime” because he killed a guy pretenting to be a woman.

The guy’s lawyer never mentioned “Rape by deception”?????
Free legal advice is worth what you pay for it.

[jakerobins]

Isn’t it funny how only speach against the liberals “protected groups” is “hate speach”?? Either were free to talk about everything or we have no freedom at all! Amazing how the left is protrayed as protecting and fighting for free speach and the First Amendment, when they are always trying to create ways to make others views illegal.

[Caipirabob]

The problem here is how do you demonstrate massive disregard and disobedience of the law in protest when you really don't give a crap about what people do in their own bedrooms? I just don't care, but it doesn't make freak, perverts and the mentally disabled any less than what they are.

[Maelstorm]

Hate crimes law is not only one of the biggest legislative wastes of time for anyone who values the idea of equal treatment under the law. It establishes special classes where a homosexual rapist of a child could easily be considered less heinous than the murderer of said rapist because is his or her sexual orientation. This is clearly a way to write pro left discrimination into the law. We have seen the same thing in Canada and in other countries where this kind of legislation has been used to bully anyone who expresses strong language against sexual peculiar sexual behaviors and in some cases Muslims. Regardless of political or religious or race affiliation this kind of law is an affront to the idea of America. America wasn’t founded on the idea that some are more equal than others and it is insane to define that in death some are more valuable under the law. The law has always considered the heinousness of the crime and there is no need for this kind of misguided activist legislation.

[Caipirabob]

I think the bigger issue here is that while the law may try to dictate behavior, that men and women are genetically programmed and born to be attracted to the opposite sex, and any deviation in that innate behavior is seen as repugnant and reprehensible. We’re simply born that way. They need to accept that, it’s our right as human beings.

[milford421]

This is an excellent analysis of the actual bill, (Read the bill at the link), http://americansfortruth.com/news/analysis-of-2009-hate-crimes-bill-hr-1913.html

This bill punishes thought.

Everyone needs to contact all Senators immediately to knock this down.

[Onelifetogive]

which adds gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability to the list of protected categories under federal hate crimes law.

I guess religion and political affiliation are already on the list. Bill Maher will get the death penalty...

[ReformationFan]

“This bill punishes thought.”

More proof that when man rejects God and His absolutes, he lobbies for a bigger and more intrusive government to make sure people “behave properly” in the way he thinks people should behave.

[milford421]

I agree.