[Peace-discuss] Administration demagogues "hate"

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Eric Holder Demagogues Hate Crimes
	By: bmaz Tuesday June 16, 2009 10:01 pm

Eric Holder can't seem to do squat for transparency, privacy, accountability or 
a plethora of other ills carried over from the Bush/Cheney Administration, but 
he is concerned that we need more hate crime laws:

"Over the last several weeks, we have witnessed brazen acts of violence, 
committed in places that many would have considered unthinkable," Holder told 
the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

He cited separate attacks over a two-week period that killed a young soldier, an 
abortion provider and a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
...
In order to stop that violence, he said, Congress should past an updated version 
of hate crimes legislation, in order to more effectively prosecute those who 
commit violent attacks based on gender, disability, or sexual orientation.

Yeah, that bunk ought to really stop Tiller's killer, the Arkansas recruiting 
center shooter and the von Brunns of the world from committing murders when that 
piddly old first degree murder capital offense with the death penalty couldn't. 
Okay, I want to be completely honest, the District of Columbia does not have the 
death penalty, but it certainly has life in prison available for the offense of 
premeditated murder. Both Kansas and Arkansas, the locations of the other two 
heinous crimes, do indeed have the death penalty for such offenses. What exactly 
does Eric Holder think the "hate crimes" he is demagoguing about are going to do 
for deterrence that the death penalty or life in prison won't?

I have a problem with "hate crime" laws. We already have laws for assault and 
battery, murder, intimidation etc. The same conduct, and level of conduct, 
should not have different laws and heightened penalties because it is targeted 
to a minority or other protected group. Why is the assault of a black worth more 
than an assault on on a white? Why is an assault on a gay man any more heinous 
than an assault on a straight? Why is one group of human beings entitled to more 
protection under the law than another? Yet, that is exactly what hate crime 
legislation does. This really flies in the face of the quintessential 
Constitutional and founding concepts of equal protection, fundamental fairness 
and all men being created equal.

The Supreme Court disagrees, but that is my take. And no matter what your view, 
I would argue that Eric Holder and the United States Department of Justice have 
far more important tasks to attend to right now, and they have been failing 
miserably on most.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/06/16/eric-holder-demagogues-hate-crimes/