HATE LAWS: MELTING THE SWORD OF THE LAW
By Harmony Grant
14 Nov 07
The biggest story in American politics isn’t in the media—at
this dangerous moment we still don’t know if Bush will veto
the federal hate crimes bill passed by both House and Senate. The
military reappropriations bill, H.R. 1585 (to which Sen. Kennedy's
hate bill amendment is attached) is now months overdue. With our
troops still dying in the Mideast and needing new supplies, Bush
may sign the arms bill –with hate bill attached –to his
regret.
Since we may soon join the league of western hate law bureaucracies,
we should listen to those who already messed up their legal system
this way, say, the Brits. Lawmakers in Britain unintentionally reveal
the folly of hate laws by trying to add more and more groups to special
federal protection. They currently want to add
the elderly and handicapped to
the list of hate laws' protected victims. Who’s next? Women,
short people, redheads, sci-fi geeks? Maybe eventually they’ll
add enough groups and we’ll all get equal protection again.
At NPN, we have amply warned that hate crime laws are selectively enforced;
they award "special victim status" to those in favor with the architect
of hate laws worldwide –ADL. In the US , homosexuals and Jews will
particularly benefit. But these laws are so dangerously malleable—based
on politics, not basic principles of justice—that they will create enormous
bureaucracies and endless paperwork and dangerously complicate the important
job of law enforcement.
The British lawmakers say old and disabled people deserve special protection
because they are frequent targets of crime. But these crimes are already illegal
(hence, the word crime). Seeking to punish a "bias motivation" won’t
help end injustice; it will only further complicate the process of protecting
old or handicapped people, and the rest of society!
Britain 's Telegraph published an excellent
column by Jenny McCartney articulating some of the dangerous stupidity
of hate crime laws. Her piece is worth the read. It's also heartening to read
the comments on her column; almost all express righteous rage at hate crime
laws.
McCartney sums up wryly, "perhaps, one day far in the future, we will
beckon in so many plainly worthy sub-categories that we will arrive at the
only position that makes any sense: that we are all equally valuable citizens
under the law, deserving of the full protection of the police and justice system.
That was, I think, the principle we started out with."
Our northern neighbor, Canada , is also a hate crimes bureaucracy. The Ottawa
Sun reports that its police unit receives 70 to 75 "hate crime" complaints
per year.
"In Ottawa , the bulk of hate-crime complaints involve incidents
of mischief, such as graffiti messages, but others are based on language." The
outgoing head of the hate crimes unit explains that people get "downright
rude."
Um, too bad! When did rudeness become a crime?
Unfortunately, Americans don't seem to hear the message from England or Canada
. Both countries provide clear stories of brainwashed lawmakers and law enforcers
with scarily confused attitudes toward crime –treating some of its
victims as more attention-worthy than others and treating language as if it
were as serious as the sticks and stones that break our bones. Yet we are quickly
hurtling toward that same dangerous confusion.
The National Action Network is organizing
a big march on Washington to demand federal action against
the “rash” of noose-hanging in American states. On
Nov. 3, activists
marched on Washington to demand that the horrific torture of
Megan Williams be prosecuted as a hate crime. They reason that
the six suspects used the n-word against Williams while abusing
her. Just reading what was done to this young black woman makes
you sick. But what if she had been white and was called a “ho” each
time she was stabbed? Would six men have deserved hate crime charges
for their misogyny? And what if it were six women abusing a man
because of their rage because of mistreatment by fathers and exes?
Would they deserve triple penalties for going against one member
of a larger group? Strangely: no. Individuals should be punished
when they commit crimes against other individuals, regardless of
why. And every person deserves equal protection under the law,
no matter to what larger group they belong.
The evil of making speech into a crime is still another reason
to reject hate laws. Besides criminalizing or chilling legitimate
speech, laws against speech or symbols just scream out for violation.
A Houston
Chronicle column points out that these are “times in which
any knucklehead with a rope or a felt-tipped pen can make national
news by hanging a noose or scrawling racist graffiti in a conspicuous
location.” The column lists several hate crime hoaxes—such
as when a young black woman sent threatening letters to minority
students, because she hoped her parents would let her drop out.
Yes, racially threatening symbols should be discouraged. But criminal
law exists to punish actual crime, not to enforce social niceties.
The law—simple, fair, and evenly applied—is our best
defense against true violations of our personal rights.
Criminal law doesn’t exist to protect people’s feelings,
change their beliefs, or “reform” their thoughts! That
has been tried before. We have to preserve the necessary weapon of
the law by not melting it down and using it for some other purpose.
You might want a garden hoe, but what will you do when you need a
gun?
Harmony
Grant writes and edits for the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watch dog organization.
Let the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith teach you how they
have saddled 45 states with hate laws capable of persecuting Christians: http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp.
Learn how ADL took away free speech in Canada and wants to steal
it now in the U.S. Congress. Watch Rev. Ted Pike's Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians at video.google.com. Purchase
this gripping documentary to show at church. Order online at www.truthtellers.org for
$24.90, DVD or VHS, by calling 503-853-3688, or at the address below.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
OR 97015
