4um: The Empty Symbolism of Hate Crimes Legislation

Title: The Empty Symbolism of Hate Crimes Legislation
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://reason.com/news/show/133408.html
Published: May 11, 2009
Author: Steve Chapman
Post Date: 2009-05-11 12:44:14 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 54
Comments: 1

Federal law enforcement officials are not plagued by idleness these days, thanks to the demands on their time from terrorists, drug traffickers, human traffickers, Ponzi schemers, and crooked politicians. But Congress never stops trying to ensure full employment for FBI agents and U.S. attorneys. The latest stimulus is the Matthew Shepard Act, billed as an overdue effort to prevent violence against gays and lesbians.

The logic behind the proposed measure is hard to follow. Says sponsoring Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), "No members of society—none—deserve to be victims of a violent crime because of their race, their religion, their ethnic background, their disability, their gender, their gender identity, or their sexual orientation." Which raises the question: Who exactly does deserve to be the victim of a violent crime?

The bill targets actions we would all like to eliminate—physically injuring or trying to injure someone with "fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device." But it's hard to imagine that it would reduce the prevalence of such conduct, which is already 1) really, really illegal and 2) subject to harsh penalties.

This legislation would add extra punishment for attacks designated as hate crimes. But if a criminal is not deterred by the fear of five years behind bars, he's probably not going to be pushed onto the straight and narrow by the prospect of six.

In the case of attacks like the one on Matthew Shepard, a gay college student beaten to death in Wyoming in 1998, the statute would be superfluous. His killers were eligible for the death penalty, though both made deals that assured they would be locked up for the rest of their lives. For the most horrific hate crimes, the change would accomplish absolutely nothing.

That's not the only way in which it would constitute an exercise in irrelevance. Already, 45 states have hate crime laws, and two-thirds of them include crimes against gays and lesbians. In the remaining states, you will be relieved to know, such attacks are punished as violent felonies.

The old rationale for federal hate crimes legislation was that bigoted local cops and prosecutors were ignoring vicious assaults on minorities. But supporters have to admit things have changed. The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, notes that "85 percent of law enforcement officials surveyed recognize bias motivated violence to be more serious than similar crimes not motivated by bias."

The existing law is mostly a curiosity, since it applies only to hate crimes in which the attacker singles out a victim on the basis of race, religion, or national origin and is trying to interfere with the victim's participation in one of six federally protected activities—going to a public school, applying for a job, serving as a grand juror, and so on. Even in the most vicious cases, notes Jonathan Godfrey, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, an attacker can't be convicted "unless he is proved to have possessed both these intents."

Sen. Kennedy wants to eliminate these restrictions because they make it hard for the feds to go after hate crimes. But the change might not go down well at the Supreme Court. In 1995, it overturned the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990 for exceeding Congress' authority over crime, which the court said is properly a responsibility of state and local governments.

So a federal hate crimes law may go from being a ban on extremely rare offenses to being unconstitutional. Some achievement.

That aside, expanding the law will not expand the number of hours in a day for the people who have to enforce it. The FBI says it could add hundreds of thousands of cases to its workload. Barring an increase in budgets and staffing, one of two things will happen: The feds will neglect other serious crimes that they now pursue, or they will neglect hate crimes. Which should it be?

Fortunately, any hate crimes passed over by the FBI can be tackled by local police and prosecutors. The Human Rights Campaign acknowledges that even if supporters of the bill get their way, "the vast majority of these crimes will continue to be prosecuted at the state level."

If federal licensing laws required disclosure of the ingredients in congressional legislation, here's what the label on this one would say: 90 grams of empty symbolism and 10 grams of needless duplication.

ADL Presents Clinton With 'Blueprint for Action' in Advance of White House Conference on Hate Crimes

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) presented President Clinton with its new document, "Hate Crimes: ADL Blueprint for Action," in advance of the first White House Conference on Hate Crimes scheduled for Nov. 10. The publication is a compilation of ADL legislative, educational and training initiatives to combat hate crimes and prejudice which can be replicated in communities across the country.

"President Clinton is focusing national attention on a problem that has long plagued this nation but has only recently emerged as a high priority," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, and Howard P. Berkowitz, ADL national chairman. "Hatred hurts, and bigotry and prejudice lie at the core of all hate crimes. These crimes can damage the fabric of our society and leave minorities fearful, angry and unwilling to trust authority.

"By convening this conference, the president has recognized the importance of tackling bigotry and bias-motivated crimes head-on. Yet, the full potential of the conference will only be realized if it sparks the development of a forward-looking national prevention and education strategy to address hate crimes and the prejudice that motivates them," continued Foxman and Berkowitz. "The league has drafted model hate crimes legislation designed to prompt law enforcement training and provide more severe penalties to perpetrators. More than 40 states have enacted penalty-enhanced laws based on the ADL model. The greatest challenge now in most jurisdictions is not the enactment of legislation, but it's the implementation -- combined with educational initiatives intended to deter such crimes." "Hate Crimes: ADL Blueprint for Action" provides hate crimes prevention and response strategies such as penalty enhancement laws, training for law enforcement and the military, security for community institutions and community anti-bias awareness initiatives. The ADL report outlines anti-bias education and diversity training programs such as A World of Difference Institute Peer Training and college and university-based anti-bias projects, and also provides year-by-year information from the "ADL Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents," ADL resources on hate violence counteraction, and state hate-crime statutory provisions. The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.