Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Is Hating Hate Crime Laws Legal?

Richard Cohen explains the stupidity of hate crime laws.
For the most part, hate-crime legislation is just a sop for politically influential interest groups -- yet another area in which liberals, traditionally sensitive to civil liberties issues, have chosen to mollify an entire population at the expense of the individual and endorse discredited reasoning about deterrence.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow... the author is really on target here. What has adding "hate-crime" statutes to our penal code done for reducing crime? Absolutely nothing. Poeple continue to assault other people. People still continue to hate other people. How can describing racially, ethically, ore same-sexually motivated crime different from any other be in the people's best interest?

Articles like this should open many eyes.

August 4, 2009 12:04 PM 
Anonymous jake said...

When I think of hate crime or hate speech statutes, or when someone lawfully exercising their right of free speech being required to undergo sensitivity training as a result, I can't help but think of the old saying about the road to hell paved with good intentions.
We live in a loud, rude, sexually explicit, profanity-laden society, yet we legislate feel good, politically correct prohibitions against vigorous public dialogue.
How did our priorities get so screwed up?

August 4, 2009 10:32 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you are against hate crimes, then I guess you are against genocide being a special category as well.

Hate crimes and the underlying intolerance for others are the seeds of genocide.

You need to open your eyes and your mind.

August 5, 2009 2:17 AM 
Anonymous jake said...

Anon-diano,
Aren't the people who support laws against vigorous public dialogue in fact promoting intolerance?
Open eyes and open minds reinforce the hypocrisy of hate crime statutes.

August 5, 2009 7:23 PM 

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