USA.
the same crime warrants the same penalty ... regardless of one's race,
ethnicity, sexuality, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9SvVn1Sd2k
On Mar 8, 12:59 pm, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Fairness of Hate Crime Laws
>
> The trial of the Rutgers student Dharun Ravi, who secretly videotaped
> his roommate Tyler Clementi with another man before Clementi committed
> suicide, has raised questions about whether Ravi's actions were a hate
> crime or simple boorishness. But some have even questioned whether
> there need to be hate crime laws at all. Do they protect against
> intimidation and bigotry, or are they unnecessary and unfair?
>
> Why We Need Bias Laws
> Wade Henderson is the president and chief executive of the Leadership
> Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
>
> March 7, 2012
>
> Hate violence is very personal, with an especially emotional and
> psychological impact on the victim — and the victim's community.
> That's because hate crimes are intentionally and specifically targeted
> at individuals because of their personal, immutable characteristics.
> Although the tragic case of Tyler Clementi clearly demonstrates the
> need for greater awareness of cyberbullying and digital privacy and
> safety, it does not present the typical hate crime paradigm.
> Reasonable people can disagree about whether it should be prosecuted
> as such.
>
> When these crimes do occur, we must send an unmistakable message that
> they matter. Like antidiscrimination laws, hate crime statutes, like
> those in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the recently passed
> federal statute, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes
> Prevention Act, are content-neutral, color-blind mechanisms that
> appropriately allow society to redress a unique type of wrongful
> conduct in a manner befitting that conduct's seriousness.
>
> When these crimes do occur, we must send an unmistakable message that
> they matter.We recognize we cannot outlaw hate. However, laws shape
> attitudes. And attitudes influence behavior. Strong enforcement of
> these laws can have a deterrent impact and limit the potential for a
> hate crime incident to explode into a cycle of violence and widespread
> community disturbances.
>
> Hate crime laws do not punish thoughts. Americans are free to think
> and believe whatever they want. It is only when an individual commits
> a crime based on those biased beliefs and intentionally targets
> another for violence or vandalism that a hate crime statute applies.
> That's why the Supreme Court unanimously upheld hate crime laws
> against a First Amendment challenge in 1993.
>
> Hate violence merits priority attention — and hate crime laws help
> ensure they receive it.
>
> Even Nonviolent Crime Needs to Be Fought
>
> Hayley Gorenberg is the deputy legal director of Lambda Legal, a
> civil rights group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
>
> March 7, 2012
>
> Controversy accompanies prosecutions under hate crime laws, and
> perhaps that's inevitable; the pattern of discrimination that shows
> people have been targeted based upon their personal traits springs
> from prejudices we have not conquered. The Supreme Court has said, in
> Wisconsin v. Mitchell, that we mete out extra punishment for hate
> crimes because they can "provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct
> emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest.''
>
> Thousands upon thousands of lesbians, gay men and transgender people
> have had their lives scarred by discrimination, and countless died
> violent deaths decades before young Matthew Shepard was robbed,
> pistol-whipped and strung up on a fence to die because he was gay. Yet
> even after that murder made headlines, it took more than 10 years to
> pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention
> Act in 2009, which, for the first time, applied federal hate crime law
> to crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived sexual
> orientation or gender identity.
>
> It's possible to strike deep at one's core without a bullet or a knife
> blade.Even in the face of gruesome crimes it was hard to get lesbian,
> gay, bisexual and transgender people on the map. But perhaps we should
> not be surprised, since we still fight for visibility, and against
> silencing, in law and policy. Yesterday the Department of Justice
> announced a settlement in a discrimination case that stemmed from a
> Minnesota school district's policy that silenced staff members who
> might have intervened against bullying over sexual orientation or
> identity. It was mere months ago that the nation allowed our military
> service members to step from the ominous shadows of "Don't Ask, Don't
> Tell." And today in Puerto Rico, there is a movement afoot to erase
> the Commonwealth's hate crimes law that specifically protects lesbian,
> gay, bisexual and transgender people even as murders of transgender
> women grab headlines.
>
> With regard to the Ravi trial, our legal system recognizes that not
> all crimes draw blood. It's possible to strike deep at one's core
> without a bullet or a knife blade. Whether or not the proof is
> mustered to a New Jersey jury's satisfaction, justice is served by a
> system that has properly acknowledged that if hate is a legal factor,
> it should be recognized in all of its most virulent forms, including
> those leveled at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people for who
> they are.
>
> More:http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/07/are-hate-crime-laws-n...
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
--
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