Poop Shute

Hate Crimes

First, I want to be very clear that I am not any anti-Islam bigot. I also do not enjoy the idea of the destruction or defacement of any book, religious or otherwise.

That said, I think it's $%&@ ridiculous that a guy is being prosecuted for a felony hate crime charge for putting a Qu'ran in a public toilet.

Don't misunderstand, I don't defend the guy's actions at all. I think it's a very tasteless and offensive thing to do. I would never do something like that, and I wouldn't want to be around people who would. But a felony?

My problem is actually with this nebulous idea of "hate crime" itself. It's legislation that speaks to our own personal thoughts and opinions. That makes me very very uncomfortable.

Example: Let's say Jon Doe catches his wife cheating on him, and flies off the handle and beats her to death. He would likely be charged with manslaughter.

If another Jon Doe is a well-known racist and beats a black man to death for the fun of it, his charges will likely be manslaughter and an additional count of "hate crime."

Now really think about that. In both cases the actions were the same, Mr Doe visited horrible violence on another human being. The end result in each case was also the same, somebody was killed. But in the second case, if convicted of both charges, his record and sentencing will come out much worse. And because of what? Because of his personal thoughts and opinions on the matter. Ugly as the second Mr. Doe's thoughts are, it makes me very uncomfortable that those things come into play at all. Both acts are despicable and both deserve to be severely punished, but neither one more so than the other.

Thoughtcrime sound familiar to anyone? It's a term created by George Orwell in 1984. Big Brother labeled any disapproved thoughts as a criminal offense. I definitely don't like the racist Jon Doe's motivations from my example, and I would never socialize with a person who expressed those kind of views, but I cannot believe I am living in an America that legislated away his right to feel that way. There is a quote often attributed to Voltaire, though he never actually wrote it:

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Isn't that one of those quotes that we always toss around here in this country? Whatever happened to that idea?

COMMENTS

...seriously? A nice, meaty piece of controversy like this, and nobody that comes by here has anything to say? weird. Joey 08.10.07 - 3:48 am

I'm avoiding discussing controversial topics via the internet as it has lost me a few "friends" in the last few months. But I don't believe this does legislate our thoughts, or our speech, but was meant as a way to reverse things like gay bashers getting misdemeanors after hospitalizing someone. As far as your murder example, even before hate crime legislation, those two crimes would have been judged separately of each other based on the killers' intent, frame of mind, and pre-meditation (the stuff hate crimes are made of). Statistically, judges and juries are pretty easy on guys who kill their wives in rages (especially if infidelity is involved - she should've known better, right?)and have been really relaxed on how they judge things like a black man being killed for being black in the wrong place (he should've known better, right?). The idea of a "hate crime" was supposed to take the whitewashing out of the good ole boy system of justice that exists in most places in america. It was meant to protect people who historically have not been protected by our system of "justice". And that's hard for you and I to understand, because we don't belong to any of those groups. Don't get me wrong, I think the laws are virtually useless and when they are used are used in ridiculous ways, but I respect their intent - which was not supposed to have anything to do with free speech or expression, only violent acts. I'm babbling. AmBam 08.10.07 - 9:55 am

I thank you AmBam, for you words. You make a lot of sense. I also had a private conversation with someone else who shed some light on this subject for me. My post was somewhat misinformed, and a little off the mark, and my examples were irrelevent at best. You both have given me a great deal to think about. I apologize if anyone was offended by the stance I took. But, I also still feel that, while an ugly thing to do, putting any book into a toilet should not be a crime, and definitely NOT a felony. I feel like the specific case that stirred me to write this post is, as you put it Ambam, the law being "used in ridiculous ways." Joey 08.13.07 - 12:01 am Absolutely no offense taken - and I actually totally agree with you on the book thing (I just realized I never said that). There's a line between being an asshole and being a criminal, but our legal system doesn't recognize that line and they just mark everything as criminal. AmBam 08.15.07 - 4:14 pm