Why are hate thought laws important?

Question

What makes hate thought laws different from living under a dictatorship?
Is Political Corretness going to end democracy?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269853,00.html

Answer 1

I don't know who inaugrated the P.C, B,S, but you can bet they planned a long time how to finish off America and we have so many idiots who will subscribe to this B.S. it makes me sick, I thought Americans had intelligence and would never accept some thing so stupid, the gov, has been very successful in destroying the pride our people had in America.our people have been kick a$$ people in the past now our people are kiss a$$ , and have no pride in who or what they are, they think it perfectly good to lower their standards to accomadate every low life in our country, is this why our country has gone down so much while the so called prejudiced nations like Japan, S, Korea, India, and China have grown so much as America has gone down? our country's educational system is one of the worst in the world, when it was the very best , ask your self why???

Answer 2

Hate crime legislation is a sentence enhancement to some other criminal act or statute. It is both impractical and unconstitutional to punish someone solely based on what they are thinking.

The reason hate crimes are considered worse is a function of the mental state involved. Just like intentional murder can be treated as more severe than reckless homicide (manslaughter) or negligent homicide. The more culpable mental state allows for a greater punishment, even though the physical act and result (death of a person) is the same.

Similarly, where a crime is committed based on racial or gender or religious or other prejudice (thus being a hate-motivated crime), the mental state is not merely a desire to harm one person. It's a desire to harm or destroy everyone who exhibits a certain trait. The victim at the time just happens to be one of many who exhibit that trait. Thus, the the victim was attacked not for anything unique to that individual (as in most other crimes) but because the victim was a representative of some larger group.

That different mental state compared to other crimes allows for the sentence enhancement.

Answer 3

Geese they would have prisons fuller than they are now? This is about as dumb as the law of the cocaine and crack law- it's all the same just one is cooked and the crime is just that don't try and sugar coat it. And to tell you the truth it seems if anyone has racist thoughts I guess that's an opinion not a crime but a hate crime is just that. Please lets concern ourselves with the worlds crap killing the oceans or the 300 million tons of AAA batteries dumped into U.S soil and the trillions of dollars Bush wasted and stole-by the way where is his shuttle parked?

Answer 4

First off, the article I read did not say anything about hate thought laws, besides that would be impossible to enforce because it's impossible to know what a person is thinking.. that said, hate crimes should be treated just like any crime. All serious crimes have hate involved, IMO...you can't legislate the way people think, that is plain stupid. You can only change the way people think with influence, not laws...

Answer 5

By hate thought laws do you mean punishing people for having racist thoughts?

If so, I think that is totally wrong. Although I believe everyone should be treated equally regardless of race, disability, gender, etc., I do not think we should punish people for being racist/ having racist thoughts. We have the freedom of speech, and if people choose to use their freedom of speech to bad mouth other people, I think they should be entitled to do that.

As for political correctness, I think that is a terrible thing. It is just a way to get people to think it is "wrong" to say certain things, when you are allowed to say whatever you want.

redphish_1- The questioner is not saying that people are punished for having racist thoughts. He/she is saying that with all the hate crimes being enacted, is that the next step. And as to your point as to whats a hate crime. Any crime could be considered a hate crime since there is hate at someone/something. Hate crimes could just be when one person attacks a minority. The person who committed the crime may not have targeted the minority because they were a minority, but for a different reason that wouldn't make it a hate crime. But since it was a minority, it could be considered a hate crime.

Answer 6

Well now, that law has already been used to muzzle Catholics in England, and even to arrest Catholic priests in Sweden. What do you think? It will force Christians and anyone else who supports traditional and moral definitions of sex, marriage and family to keep their beliefs quite for fear of prosecution by the authorities.

Answer 7

So, you do not think motive is important in determining the severity of the offense?

Are all forms of killings equivalent?

Are all forms of killings murders?

This is not censorship, this is defining the motive of a crime and determining if the motive is particularly deplorable. Or do you think premeditated murder is equivalent to an accidental shooting? Does it matter if the murderer is psychotic/schizophrenic
or a CEO who hires a killer to kill his estranged wife?

Thousands of years of western legal history demonstrates that motive is important and changes the "evilness" of the crime generic crime committed.

Answer 8

So called "hate crime" laws have nothing to do with thinking or saying what ever one wants. They simply add federal jurisdiction to crimes that are committed against certain groups simply because the person committing the crime hates all members of that group. The key here is a crime has to be committed before these laws kick in. Consider you straw man knocked down.

Answer 9

Do our current Presidents press conferences count ?? That would actually be the 1st Amendment in the Constitution there Scott.

Answer 10

Stop watching Fox News. These jerks have their own agenda, just like this Fascist Nazi administration. Just a bunch of flunkie wannabe's. Losers....