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I keep thinking about the tragedy at the Holocaust Museum yesterday. I find it tragic and unfortunate that the security guard is the one who has died while the assailant is still alive. I have heard that authorities are considering whether this was a hate crime. Personally I think that it is painfully obvious that this was a hate crime but has me thinking once again that there is no reason that hate crimes should be treated differently than any other crime.
Imagine if the security officer had been killed in the midst of a robbery. In that case this would not be a hate crime, but the officer would be just as dead as he is now so the incident is no less tragic and the crime no less grievous. In my mind, if the punishments we dole out for a crime ore not severe enough then we should change the punishments for the crime, not reclassify some instances as “hate crimes.”
The only time that I can see any argument for any legislation against the attitudes and beliefs that we try to prosecute with hate crimes legislation is in the case of speech. I believe it might be possible to draw a line where hateful speech is worthy of criminal prosecution where other inflammatory but not “hate” speech would be protected.
2 replies on “Hate Crime”
I am generally opposed to stiffer penalties for politically incorrect crime (the classification of hate crime). Murder is murder. Assault is assault. Bringing an unauthorized weapon into a federal facility is still a crime.
However, it is important to see where hate crime advocates are coming from. Our law has a long tradition of considering intent and motive in the commission of crime. That’s one reason, for example, there is a broad range of classifications for improperly causing the death of another — from involuntary manslaughter all the way to capital murder.
Supporters of hate crime legislation see penalty enhancements for crime motivated by hate in a similar light. Many on the other side, however, see the creation of politically favored special classes that are considered under the law to be of greater value than many of their fellow beings.
There is a reason that the statue of Justice depicts a blindfolded woman with balanced scales in one hand and a drawn sword in the other. The legal recognition of special classes lifts Justice’s blindfold and unequally weights her scale.
I understand the way the proponents of hate crimes legislation argue for their position, but I hold with the sentiment that creating special classes lifts the blindfold of justice. There is a difference of intent and culpability between capital murder and involuntary manslaughter but I see no difference between capital murder and murder based on hatred for a certain type of people.