Re: What is the point of hate laws?

On Apr 12, 6:00=A0pm, JT <zzzxtyryyetytr...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In the UK, 7000 citizens signed their name to a petition to expand
> hate crime laws. They want the laws to punish anyone who commits
> violence because someone looks different. The petition responds to the
> murder of a young Goth-dressing woman and her boyfriend in a park.
>
> The assailants didn't know the girl. Presumably they attacked her
> because she was wearing black lipstick. That's how the argument goes.
> The thuggish kids who attacked her should get tripled penalties
> because their violence was motivated by her weird looks.
>
> So, it would have been less heinous had she been an upper class,
> pearls-wearing babe attacked because she looked rich? What if she'd
> been a gorgeous blonde cheerleader and they attacked her because they
> weren't getting any? What about robbing someone of an Ipod or
> scratching a ****sche because "They can afford it". The list goes on
> forever.
>
> It is hideously unjust to label the value of various victims,
> stiffening penalties for some murders and not others, for some
> assaults and not others, etc. Every violent crime is a tragedy to be
> redressed. Endlessly add to the list of special "hate crime" victims,
> and someday everybody will be on it. Then we'll be right back where we
> started: equal law.
>
> But unjust penalties for violent crimes aren't the greatest danger of
> hate crime laws. Their greatest danger is that they criminalize free
> speech. They criminalize certain beliefs and animosities--emotions with
> which the government has no business meddling. The government has no
> more right to say you can't be biased against homo***uals than to say
> you can't be biased against professional athletes or workaholics or
> overbearing mothers-in-law.
>
> Hate crime laws were created by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
> B'rith, a Jewish organization committed to demonizing--and yes,
> defaming --beliefs and values it opposes. Specifically, the ADL opposes
> anti- Israel and anti-homo***ual activism and Christian evangelism.
> Hate crime laws were not created primarily to respond to violent crime
> (which is, obviously, already illegal). They were created to
> marginalize and then criminalize certain kinds of speech and "bias" -
> primarily Christian.
>
> http://www.rense.com/general81/sud.htm

Hatecrime laws seek to regulate thought. they are bull****e! If
someone brains someone with a ball peren hammer, does screaming "I
love you!" really mitigate the crime?