[PEN-L:2911] Re: hate crimes

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There is already an anti-hate crime U.S. criminal statute, 18 USCS 1091, et seq. It is the U.S. adoption of the UN (anti-) Genocide Convention. This is the international codification of the Nuremburg Principles. However, it does not include groups of sexual preference in its definitions of potential targets of genocide.

Charles Brown

>>> Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 02/04 5:55 PM >>>
In my e-mail inbox, I have a petition that my sister sent me, in favor of
strengthening US "hate crimes" laws to apply to crimes against gays and
lesbians. (BTW, she's a lesbian.) I'm in a quandary. This is not because
I'm against gay and lesbian rights (quite the contrary). Rather, the
problem is that I have a visceral reaction against the idea of "hate
crimes" legislation.

The problem with hate crime legislation for me is that it puts much too
much stress on people's intentions. Too much of this gets into thought
control. And prosecutors are already too strong in the US, as Alex
Cockburn's column in today's L.A. TIMES reminds us. And what about hate
crimes by the police themselves?

It seems to me that what we need is stronger laws against _torture_. I
think that this would catch almost all of the hate crimes, like that
against Matthew Shepard. It also could be used against the prosecutors and
police some times. I think it also allows us to have simpler laws and
simpler law enforcement, since it's much easier to pin down torture than
hate. (Many of the haters have great facades.)

any thoughts?

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html