What is a “love crime?” All crimes are committed because a perpetrator wanted to hurt the innocent. Where is the justification for introducing the additional vague term “hate crime” that can only serve to create confusion, allow for manipulation and abuse, or attribute to more divisiveness of identity or group politics?
Additionally, FBI crime data show that only one in 1,000 murders, one in 15,000 rapes, one in 3,000 robberies and one in 1,300 felony assaults are motivated by bias. The rate of hate crimes is consistently falling. Of these bias-motivated crimes, approximately a third are intimidation, which is defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as “…verbal or related threats of bodily harm” like name-calling or shouting.
In other words, by this definition, a 5 year-old yelling that his sister is a doo-doo head because she is a girl could be constituted as a hate crime. Please. There is no constitutional right to never be offended. There is no constitutional requirement that we like everyone. There is not even a constitutional requirement that we treat everyone with respect, only that every person is afforded the same treatment under the law.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” These words, from the Declaration of Independence, are the foundation of not only the idea of America, but also the concrete implementation of our justice system. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution includes the often-mentioned Equal Protection Clause, which serves to further enshrine the intense value we place on equality for all.
America is without question one of the freest and most equal countries in the world today or in history. The unparalleled level of freedom and equality we enjoy today was won through a long and difficult series of battles, bloody and peaceful, in our nation’s history. We have overcome racial, gender and religious inequality and even hatred. We have come to expect that, by giving government a monopoly on force, we are protected from acts of violence that prevent us from enjoying our inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Crime, in all its forms, is deplorable, unjust and hateful. For this reason, we must recognize the inherent injustice in hate crime policies and legislation. Such policies imply that all people are equal, but some are more equal. There is no reason why a crime against a person of a specific group is any less tragic or evil.
Every victim and victims’ family is devastated and robbed of love, security and joy by a crime, regardless of whether or not bias or insanity was the motivation. The hatred that motivates criminals does not require nuance or special treatment. Criminal behavior should always be prosecuted.
If my friend is walking to her dorm and a member of the Klan hits her in the back of the head with a brick, the operative word is not “Klan.” It is “brick.”
