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Date Posted: 17:30:39 06/18/03 Wed
Author: Drew Greyfox
Subject: At the risk of beating a dead horse, hate crimes laws have NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with "thought control"...
In reply to: Geoff 's message, "Why? Because IMO it is unnecessary, and unequal. ALL crime is horrible, not just SOME crimes. .." on 17:53:29 06/14/03 Sat

They do not criminalize anyone's thoughts, they do not punish anyone for thoughts or religious beliefs or even free speech. How exactly does one write a law to control people's thoughts anyway? How do you criminalize thoughts? It's not possible and hate crimes laws have nothing to do with controlling or criminalizing a person's thoughts. That is a very simple FACT.

I agree with you that all crime is horrible, however all crime is not equal nor are all criminals' motives or intentions equal. The law already takes into consideration a person's motives/intentions which is why there are various degrees of murder for example, such as involuntary manslaughter, first degree murder etc etc.

I would also point out that the evidence is most definitely stacked against your suggestion that hate crimes laws are unnecessary. There are far too many examples of law enforcement officials who ignore anti-gay hate crimes, or worse, help cover them up or even participate in them. Even in some cases when it is blatantly obvious that an anti-gay crime has occurred and local law enforcement officials refuse to act on it, federal law enforcement is unable to step in and take action. That is a major point of hate crimes legislation, to allow federal law enforcement to assist local departments who are unable to investigate, or to take over when local officials refuse to do their job.

There is simply nothing in the federal hate crimes law that would create a "special class" of citizens that would be "more equal" then any other, and so far nobody has offered any factual proof to the contrary. And again, I offer the track record of current hate crimes laws that cover racial and religious minorities. None of these laws have created a "special class" or granted anyone "special rights" because they belong to a certain category. What they have done is helped hate crimes (actions, NOT thoughts or speech) to be investigated and prosecuted by federal law enforcement when local officials were unable or unwilling because of prejudice.

I welcome dissenting opinion and have no problem hearing another side of an issue. But all I ever seem to hear from those opposed to hate crimes laws, anti-discrimination laws, gay marriage, etc etc is myths and misconceptions such as "special rights" "special class" and "more equal" with no factual evidence.

FACT: Hate crime laws do NOT criminalize anyone's thoughts

FACT: Hate crime laws do NOT criminalize anyone's free speech

FACT: Hate crime laws do NOT criminalize anyone's religious beliefs

FACT: Hate crime laws are used to investigate and punish criminal ACTIONS

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