Hate Crimes

Shouldn’t We Protect All Americans Equally?

 By Kelly Shackelford, President, Free Market Foundation

“The ends don’t justify the means” is a lesson most of us learned as children. It’s easy to be persuaded to take a wrong action if you are pursing a noble goal. My friend Mark Briskman and I agree with the goals of reducing and hopefully, one day, even ending these and other hate crimes. The victims of these crimes deserve our full support and love.

We disagree, however, over whether so called hate crimes bills are the way to accomplish these goals. They are not. They would violate some of our most foundational principles as a nation and would, in fact, harm the cause rather than help it.

A first major problem is what these bills say is and is not a hate crime. All murders, rapes and assaults against any Texan are hate crimes but not under hate crimes laws. Women will be shocked to learn that rapes are not hate crimes against women. Give me a break. Only rapes, assaults and other crimes against certain classes of Texans are considered hate crimes (race, sex, sexual preference).

This reveals the major problem with these bills—a lack of Equal Protection. Hate crimes bills place Americans into classes, protecting some more than others under the law. That is wrong. Every American crime victim should receive equal protection under the law. The homosexual who leaves a gay bar should receive the full protection of the law, but so should your grandmother on her way to the grocery store. She does not, under these bills.

In a national poll conducted on this issue, 92% of Americans said criminals should be punished for their actions alone, not their beliefs, and their victims should receive equal protection. I agree. Would anyone really tell the Columbine High School parents of the boy killed because he was an athlete that their son is less important or should receive less protection than the girl killed because of her faith or the young man killed because he was black? I hope not. Every American crime victim should receive equal protection under the law.

Another major problem with these bills is that punishment is added for thoughts alone with no additional actions necessary by the defendant. Giving the government this power is dangerous. Determining whether someone had the intent to commit a crime is very different from punishing a person more because they had thoughts the government disapproved of.

Arguments for the Hate Crimes bills are unpersuasive. James Byrd’s and Matthew Sheppard’s killers received the greatest punishment possible—death and life in prison. These new bills would have added no additional punishment. Also, simply defacing property, versus writing a bigoted epithet on someone’s property (the crime of “Intimidation” or “Harassment”) are already treated differently. Last, more serious crimes (whether or not they’re defined as hate crimes by politicians) always shake up the whole community and dramatically increase fear, whether the crime is murder, rape or assault in a community. There is no basis for a distinction in the law.

If we want to really, not symbolically, address the problem of criminal hatred, we should move toward a system of restorative justice, as advocated by groups like Prison Fellowship. Criminals should have to come face to face with their victims and see the costs they have perpetrated on real people and families. Faith-based prison efforts, such as those advocated by President Bush, are showing great results in changing criminal hearts in ways the law never will.

These hate crimes bills proposed, while well-intentioned by some, will actually exacerbate the problem, further dividing people into groups and classes, instead of treating us all the same. In fact, statistics show that the very minority groups these bills are trying to protect, such as blacks, are the ones percentage-wise against whom these laws would be used the most.

If the punishment range for any crime is too low, lets raise it. Let’s raise it to protect every crime victim. Every crime victim in America deserves equal protection under the law. Let’s stand together, not apart.

Free Market Foundation is a non-profit, Texas organization dedicated to protecting the freedoms of all Texans and strengthening families. Our mission is to keep you politically informed.

SIGN-UP to receive weekly email alerts!