Thought Police

Conservatives really get the fuzzy end of the lollipop in much of the political rhetoric these days. Take so-called "hate crimes" legislation - who in their right minds would be for hate crimes? Therefore people of good conscience should vote to make hate crimes illegal, and anybody who votes against such legislation must be a bigoted racist sexist homophobe. Take that, Rush Limbaugh! Reality, though, is much more complex.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1592, S. 1105), currently working its way through Congress, would authorize the federal government to assist in investigating and prosecuting violations of state hate crimes laws. It also allows the federal government to prosecute a hate crime if, among other factors, either the victim, perpetrator, or weapon crossed state lines.

Imagine how many crimes that will prevent! A Californian full of hate and on the verge of violence will stop and say "I had better not shoot that person, because my gun was made in Virginia." But if the soon-to-be-victim is of the same gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation as the criminal, all of a sudden it is not a hate crime? Only liberals could make sense of such logic. Why can't we just say "the victim was a human being;" shouldn't that be all the justification we need to severely punish violent crimes?

The current list of especially bad hate includes hating based on "actual or perceived" gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, or race/color. While we're at it, why don't we include hair color, veteran status, body piercings, income level, athletic ability, and every other type of hatred that's out there. Don't all violent crimes fall under the category of hate crime to one degree or another?

Imagine encountering families who have been affected by "non-hate-crime" violence. Are you going to tell the lesbian's family that her killer doesn't deserve as much prison time because she was murdered due to road rage and not some sexually-based hatred? Could you tell the Hispanic parents that their son's killer won't receive quite as much punishment because the bullet that killed him wasn't fired out of racial animus, but was rather a stray round in some gangs' turf war?

Whatever the reason for violence, don't we all - victims and alleged perpetrators - deserve the same treatment under the law? We certainly have much work to do in eradicating senseless violence in our society, but laws such as this won't make much difference. Hate crimes legislation serves more to call attention to our differences rather than our commonalities, and emphasize divisions where we should work towards unity.