Hate Crimes
“Criminalizing even the vilest hateful thoughts—as opposed to willful criminal acts—is inconsistent with a free society.”
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
“Criminalizing even the vilest hateful thoughts—as opposed to willful criminal acts—is inconsistent with a free society.”
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
May 10th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
But the thought isn’t the crime. It’s the action.
We take the mens rea (state of mind) into account in all sorts of crime. It’s the difference between the degrees of murder, and the degrees of homicide (as well as being the defining factor between those two crimes).
The issue in a “hate crime” (more properly termed a bias crime) is that the specific victim isn’t the only target. The entire community is meant to be afraid, and to change it’s behavior.
And these modifications aren’t crimes, in; and of, themselves. An overt act has to be done [just as with conspiracy. People plan to do something. It’s not a crime. But when they move to do it, then they have committed, at least, conspiracy].
Further, they protect all. A crime against a christian church is as much a bias crime (if done because the church is christian, just as much as one against a mosque, synagogue or buddhist temple.
So the class protected isn’t those who are named; they get abused before the “protection” comes into play (it’s a sentence enhancement, like that for using a firearm in the commission of a crime), but rather society as a whole which says, in effect, “This we’ll defend.”
TK