Confused and Concerned about Hate Crime Legislation

Hate crimes (also known as bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social groups, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability etc. President Obama today is signing a new Hate Crimes Bill that received final approval from the Senate on Oct. 22nd to legislation already passed by the House that expands federal hate-crimes statutes to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Once the bill becomes law the Department of Justice will have broader authority to investigate and prosecute violent crimes "motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim." However, social conservatives are arguing that this piece of legislation will stifle free speech, especially by religious leaders who "preach the Gospel" as they have learned it without fear of persecution.

This can pose a problem since Americans sure do love those First Amendment rights. I have a couple of statements and concerns about this bill and its potential to possibly put people in jail for a thought, intention, or prejudice. These intangible things, as bad as they may be are currently not arrestable offenses. This is what I do not understand. Hate crime at the end of the day is still a crime no matter how it is labeled. I'm not saying that it does not matter the reasoning behind why the crime was committed, but in a court of law at the end of the day it comes down to you either committing the crime or not. The act of murdering someone is a crime; whether your reasoning behind committing the crime was rooted in hate or prejudice. If you look at this definition of "hate crime" after the bill is signed the act of doing harm to someone is not the only offense you will be prosecuted for, but the thought behind the act will be weighed probably in the sentencing phase.

It is interesting to me that with all this said politicians don't deem gang related violence as "hate crimes." I guarantee they hate each other based on some form of prejudice, bias, racial grouping, neighborhood grouping, etc. Potentially, this law will give the Justice Department the teeth to investigate the wild or timid rantings of any individual that says anything controversial about another group of people bases on the categories listed above. However, like most laws they will be discriminatory in their application. Example: The lower class individual who "thinks" and voices his/her opinion passionately on a group of people will have a file and a potential offense that can and probably will be prosecuted in a court, while a Senator or Congressman who among his/her friend voices their opinion about those "Towelheads infiltrating America" or even going back to my previous blog with that woman in East Cobb raving about "The Muslims breeding at an increase rate to take over America." I would bet you the last two individuals most likely would not even be taken into consideration unless someone seriously pushed for it, but that first guy or girl is SOL.

I think it will be interesting when individuals actually start getting prosecuted under this new law because they are going to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court where there is are already a number of cases like Near v. Minnesota and R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul that combat these infringement on "prior restraint and fighting words that may or may not incite an immediate breach of peace" both were ruled unconstitutional.

I think if we just continue to enforce the current laws on the books to their full extent we will be successful in keeping dangerous people (prejudice, crazy, or not) in jail without having to infringe upon the right of the rest of the nation.

Tell me what you think about the new law and how it will be applied to various people and its potential effects on Free Speech in America.