THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2003 FEDERAL "HATE CRIMES" LEGISLATION IS ON THE WAY
Now we have Republican Senator Orin Hatch joining with Teddy Kennedy in pushing yet another version of a federal hate crimes bill. This bill would allow federal prosecution for any crime motivated by prejudice based things like race, ethnicity and religion, but also on gender, sexual orientation or disability of the victim.
Come on, folks. Let's call this what it is. It's "thought crimes" legislation, not "hate crimes." It allows for the federal government to step in and prosecute someone for what they were thinking when they committed a crime. Let's say this crime became law. A white person commits a crime against a black person. The white person is prosecuted in a state court and is acquitted by a jury. Civil rights warlords would then be in a position to pressure the local federal prosecutor to bring a federal hate crimes charge against the white person. The federal government could then step in and prosecute the white person not for what that person did to his victim, but because of what that person may have been thinking when he did it.
There was a trial in Atlanta recently of a group of particularly noxious young whites who attacked a group of blacks in an area known as Little Five Points. The whites were yelling racial epithets. These whites were convicted and sentenced to jail. Some local race warlords immediately started screaming to high heaven because these idiot kids didn't receive 20-year sentences. If this federal law were in place the race warlords would be able to pressure the feds to bring the federal hate crimes charges to bear. Maybe they could get their precious 20-year sentences after all.
Another scenario. I'm waking down the street with a black friend. A gang of white skinheads comes up and pounds the stew out of both of us. The skinheads are charged with assault, tried, convicted and sentenced to jail. Then along comes the federal government to file hate crime charges against the skinheads. They are going to be charged with an extra crime because they attacked the black guy. The federal government will view the assault on my black friend as one worthy of federal prosecution ... simply because of what they feel skinheads were thinking at the time. The assault on me? Not worthy of federal attention. Tell me, is the law treating me equally in this scenario? Can you honestly say that I'm getting equal treatment?
Hate may be ugly, but it is not illegal. In a free society you should be free to engage the negative emotion of hate as you see fit. You cannot legislate loving or liking someone. Thought processes should not be crime. Actions should be crimes. This federal hate crime bill, as all hate crime bills, is a bad idea.
Well put.-ANdY
Careful, talk like this will earn you a visit from FR's own race warlords.
Boortz is dead nuts with his assessment.
That's sickening.