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Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 / Act should be passed - Discourse DB Jump to content

Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 / Act should be passed

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Position: Act should be passed

This position addresses the topic Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.


For this position


"Some violent crimes are more than that. A beating, an arson attack or a killing can be fueled by hateful bias, making the harm doubly hurtful. That's why hate crimes should go on the federal books, as Congress intends."
"And then there are opponents such as Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), who said after HR 1592 passed, "If someone commits a crime, they should be punished for that crime. Period." So true. But crimes that target someone because of his or her race or sexual orientation are more than an offense against that individual. They are crimes that terrorize whole communities."
"Adding sexual orientation to the definition of a hate crime makes sense whether or not one believes that acts of violence motivated by bias should be punished more severely than other violent crimes. This legislation deals not with penalties but with the allocation of resources in a way that recognizes that bias-fueled crimes exist."

Against this position


"Unlike the situation in the Jim Crow South, there is no evidence that state and local officials are ignoring bias-motivated crimes. The hate crime bill, which authorizes federal prosecution whenever the Justice Department perceives a bigoted motive and believes the perpetrator has not been punished severely enough, continues the unfortunate tendency to federalize crimes that are properly the business of state and local governments, just so legislators like Pelosi can show they care."
"No one's status in the justice system should depend on their class of identity. For too long in our history, the system exhibited preferences to certain people and barriers to others. The solution to that is not to apply that mistake to the fashionable classes of victims of the moment, but to ensure that the system works equally for everyone. Not only should Bush veto this bill, Congress should repeal the existing priority-by-identity system they've already created."
"'In effect, a hate-crime trial may become a wide-ranging inquiry into the defendant's character, values and beliefs.' Watch what you say, and try to remember what you have said in the past. Other prosecutorial questions also may include magazines or other publications you read, or even which recordings you listen to. "
"This draws government steadily deeper into stigmatizing certain thoughts and attitudes, which incites more and more groups to clamor for inclusion in the ranks of the especially protected. And Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute notes that prosecutors of supposed hate crimes must pry into defendants' lives -- books and magazines read, Internet sites visited, the nature of his or her friends -- to uncover evidence of unsavory thinking."
"Hatred and bigotry are reprehensible. But they aren't crimes in themselves. And the books are now filled with statutes that punish individuals for behavior that injures other people or damages property. Enhancing those penalties because the perpetrator may be a bigot is an affront to our legal traditions of equal protection under the law."
"The bill’s definition of violence includes intimidation, which leaves considerable room for interpretation in the hate-crimes context. It also empowers the attorney general to help states enforce their own hate-crimes laws, which means that a liberal state, in concert with a liberal administration in Washington, could involve the federal government in envelope-pushing investigations and prosecutions."
"The Senate version is called "The Matthew Shepard Act," after a gay man beaten to death in 1998 in Wyoming. But that case fails to prove the need for an expanded law. His two assailants were not charged with a hate crime, since the state had no such law. They were, however, convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison."
"Of course, there were differences in the facts and circumstances of the two cases. Nevertheless, to look at them side-by-side is to see the inherent inequity in the concept of "hate crimes." Matthew Shepard did not deserve to die. But neither did Cindy Dixon. Yet under "hate crimes" laws, Matthew Shepard would be entitled to greater protection than Cindy Dixon."

Mixed on this position


No results