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To: Man50D

Can someone link this bill and quote the language that is of concern?


13 posted on 04/30/2009 4:31:40 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (I agree with Rick..)
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To: HereInTheHeartland

Here ya go. There are a coupla threads about this bill, also.

...............

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1913

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2009-223

...........................

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009’.

SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF HATE CRIME.

In this Act—

(1) the term ‘crime of violence’ has the meaning given that term in section 16, title 18, United States Code;

(2) the term ‘hate crime’ has the meaning given such term in section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (28 U.S.C. 994 note); and

(3) the term ‘local’ means a county, city, town, township, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a State.

(1) mentions Title 18, section 16, which says:

..........................
§ 16. Crime of violence defined
How Current is This?
The term “crime of violence” means—
(a) an offense that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or prop­erty of another, or
(b) any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.

.........................

The definition of “hate crime” was referenced by inclusion of a US Code paragraph, which does not itself define “hate crime”, but references it somewhere else...

Eventually I found this:

SEC. 280003. DIRECTION TO UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION REGARDING SENTENCING ENHANCEMENTS FOR HATE CRIMES.

(a) DEFINITION- In this section, `hate crime’ means a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.

(b) SENTENCING ENHANCEMENT- Pursuant to section 994 of title 28, United States Code, the United States Sentencing Commission shall promulgate guidelines or amend existing guidelines to provide sentencing enhancements of not less than 3 offense levels for offenses that the finder of fact at trial determines beyond a reasonable doubt are hate crimes. In carrying out this section, the United States Sentencing Commission shall ensure that there is reasonable consistency with other guidelines, avoid duplicative punishments for substantially the same offense, and take into account any mitigating circumstances that might justify exceptions.

..........

‘(2) OFFENSES INVOLVING ACTUAL OR PERCEIVED RELIGION, NATIONAL ORIGIN, GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY, OR DISABILITY-

‘(A) IN GENERAL- Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, in any circumstance described in subparagraph (B), willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person—

‘(i) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both; and

‘(ii) shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined in accordance with this title, or both, if—

‘(I) death results from the offense; or

‘(II) the offense includes kidnaping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill.


24 posted on 04/30/2009 5:04:39 AM PDT by DBrow
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