I don't support hate crime legislation in general - crimes against one group of Americans should not get more or less prosecution than all Americans.
But if they are gonna have hate crimes legislation I like that this will only cover bodily injury rather than words.
One problem though is the legislation allows the Attorney General to give "prosecution of any crime that: (1) constitutes a crime of violence under federal law or a felony under state, local, or Indian tribal law;"
As I read it, that the Federal government will support prosecution under state law even if the crime does not fit the limited Federal definition.
I doubt this will be killed since it has 135 co-sponsors - maybe the tactic should be to get an amendment that would limit Federal assistance to cases that are hate crimes under Federal law. Unfortunately its already out of sub-committee.
Here's the law in question
H.R.1592 I don't support hate crime legislation in general - crimes against one group of Americans should not get more or less prosecution than all Americans....But if they are gonna have hate crimes legislation I like that this will only cover bodily injury rather than words. I agree, though I'd oppose it on the grounds that this is a state issue, there's no legitimate reason to federalize this type of criminality. Of course the reason for the legislation is a combination of political opportunism and the grant program.
Portraying it as "Christian's in the bull's-eye" is a bit of a stretch, unless someone considers the KKK just a group of Christians. I can think of a particular religion known for religiously based violence, probably impact theme more.
The actual article is excerpted, and goes into a number of other issues which make the authors point.