Saturday, October 22, 2005

Hate Crimes

I am no fan of hate crime legislation because I believe it is dangerously close to criminalizing thoughts. That being said, if it is law is should not be applied selectively. It seems the legislation is only intended for white criminals. For example, about two weeks ago six Mexican immigrants were killed by three African Americans, yet the police are quick to say this is not a hate crime. I wonder how law enforcement can tell the motives of the murderers so quickly. (In the interest of full discolsure, I am an American of Mexican descent. There is no doubt in my mind that if the suspects were white this story would be front page of every paper and tv show. As it is, I only heard of this story about 4 days ago. If hate crime legislation is good for the whites then it should be good for minorities, as well.

1 comment:

Joe Verica said...

I think you make a good point. The law is not applied evenly across the board. But then again, I don't think it was ever intended to. All this hate crime nonsense is really just a ploy to give certain groups added protections that other groups do not enjoy.

BTW, I read that hate crime language was recently pulled out of a sex-offeder bill by the Senate.