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National
Prayer Network
HATE LAWS: PUTTING BELIEFS BEHIND BARS
By Harmony Grant
13 Nov 08
The new TV show Life on Mars features a cop thrown back
in time to 1973. On a recent episode, the cop from 2008 calls an
assault a “hate crime.” His buddy, a cop from 1973, retorts, “As
opposed to an “I really, really like you crime?””
His witty comeback points out the commonsense response to the idea of a “hate
crime:” all violence comes from evil emotions. We should not classify some
rapes as more hateful or some assaults as more biased. This belittles individual
survivors; it categorizes them based on their group identity, not their personal
rights as a human being.
In New York State , seven
teens have been accused of a “hate crime” after a 38-year-old
immigrant from Ecuador , Marcello Lucero, was attacked and stabbed to death.
The assistant district attorney claims that the teens said, “Let's go find
some Mexicans to -- -- up.” She accuses them of a “well thought out
crime targeting Hispanic males.”
Say she’s right. Say these seven teens murdered Marcello Lucero because
he was the first Latin-looking man they saw and their agenda was to kill a Hispanic.
That’s appalling. But would Marcello’s death be less horrible
if the boys killed him because they wanted to gang-rape his wife? Would it be
less hateful if they’d stabbed him to death so they could have a joy ride
in his car? If they hadn’t hated his race but had hated his wealth or his
job or his resemblance to a man who had molested one of them—would the
crime have been less evil?
“Anti-hate” laws say yes. These laws segregate society into groups
and say bias and hatred of some groups, like minorities, is worse than
against others. A crime against a member of a protected group is punished more
harshly than a crime against an individual not of those groups. This is identity
politics at its worst.
As we warn time and again, these laws are ultimately dangerous not just because
they further splinter society into separate social groups but because they criminalize
bias, which is held in beliefs, thoughts and speech. There is no freedom more
precious than the freedom to believe, think and speak as you choose, even if
you choose racism or nationalism or to worship aliens. Hate crime laws shatter
this precious freedom, invading the most personal space of thought and belief
to legislate what are acceptable beliefs and biases and what are not.
An Associated
Press article about Marcello Lucero’s stabbing reviews a few other
assaults on Hispanic immigrants and quotes leaders of Long Island Immigrant Alliance;
they blame the public debate on immigration for fostering a culture of hate.
A local pastor and immigrant advocate even charged that “some of the highest
leaders of our community also have blood on their hands.” Wow, now political
commentators on illegal immigration are responsible for this brutal killing?
That kind of rhetoric is precisely what happens when prosecutors parse the “bias” behind
a crime and prosecute beliefs, not just actions. Soon the realm of ideas and
public debate is picked apart. Legitimate political speech is blamed for “inciting
hate.” Soon government regulates ideas and speech. Bloggers are arrested
for writing about immigration. Social scientists face jail time for taboo (but
possibly true) theories about race. Pastors are put in handcuffs for quoting
from the Bible about sexual immorality. Sound like a draconian dictatorship that
could never happen in the USA ? I wish it were. This kind of crackdown has already
happened in Canada , Europe and Australia . It will happen here, too, if we continue
to march to the steady beat of hate crime arguments. It is a natural path: you
stiffen penalties for the thoughts behind a crime; soon you prosecute the thoughts
if they are said aloud, whether or not an actual crime has been committed. The
speech and the thoughts become the crime. And then we live in Orwell’s
world.
In Burma , a 28-year-old poet
and blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for publishing an online
poem mocking the country’s dictator. The lines of his poem formed an acrostic
calling the dictator “power crazy.” He was arrested the day after
publishing the poem. The blogger-now-prisoner owns three internet cafes in Burma ’s
capitol. His mother was not allowed to attend his hearing, and as a detainee
he was deprived of food and water during the proceedings.
Unfortunately, no American can view Burma ’s actions with indifference,
as the fascist tactics of an outpost of civilization. Hardly. “Anti-hate” laws
empower the most “civilized” governments of the world to imprison
their citizens for online political and social speech. Just ask David Irving
or Ernst Zundel, who served jail time for challenging establishment history of
the Holocaust. As much as we might like to believe an American will never face
a policeman’s fist on his door for critiquing the government—or Judaism,
or homosexual practices, or religion—on his blog—it can and will
happen.
And it will happen through the seemingly righteous move of defining and prosecuting
violent “hate crimes”—as if some crimes were based in kindness.
Harmony Grant writes and edits for National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watchdog group.
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.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this
topic. Call (503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
OR 97015
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