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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Defense, Ted-Style(hate crime leg. attached to defense spending bill) Knowing that President Bush would veto it as a stand-alone bill, Sen. Kennedy attached to the recently passed bill authorizing $150 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan an amendment he calls the Mathew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. The House version of the hate crimes act, passed May 3, drew the threat of a presidential veto. But Kennedy placed his hope on the fact that a "president of the United States has never vetoed, in the history of the United States, a defense authorization bill." Well, there's always a first time. So what does a hate crimes bill have to do with a bill to fight the war on terror? Kennedy explains: "The defense authorization is about dealing with the threat of terrorism overseas. . . . This (bill) is about terrorism in our neighborhood." And about terrorism against gays in the military, senator? The amendment's co-sponsor, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said "the military is not immune to the scourge of hate crimes in our country. In 1992, Navy seaman Allen Schindler was brutally murdered by his shipmate Terry Helvey in Okinawa, Japan." That Smith and Kennedy had to go back 15 years to find a single example of military terrorism against gays is telling. So is the fact that they had to slander the U.S. military to pass another law dealing with what is already a crime in all 50 states and under the Uniform Code of Military Justice — murder. They neglect to mention that Helvey was convicted of his crime and is now serving a life sentence in prison. They do not explain how making his crime also a hate crime would increase his punishment or its deterrent value. Their amendment is named after Matthew Shepard, the homosexual University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death in 1998. It would lower the threshold of proof that a crime was motivated by hate and would make a hate crime targeting a victim because of sexual orientation. Shepard's killers were each given double life sentences and have said since that money and drugs motivated their actions, not animus towards homosexuals. So these crimes, as heinous as they are, are already being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. "There may be a time and a place for a hate crimes discussion, but it is certainly not now when national security legislation is being held up," says Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Republican Conference. "Forcing a vote on the so-called hate crimes amendment shows an utter lack of seriousness about national defense." Making it a federal offense to commit violent acts against people because of their gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation is a blatant violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. It says that criminals who assault you because of, say, the color of your skin, will be treated differently than those who assault you because of the color of your money. The idea that a "hate crime" is worse than any other crime sends a message to those who are murdered, raped, mugged or otherwise assaulted that their lives and injuries are of less concern and importance because their assailants were blessedly free of bigotry. Should people who prey on minorities, homosexuals or women be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent possible? Emphatically, yes. But while it may be more repugnant to abuse someone for merely being different, the government is supposed to protect us against other people's actions, not other people's feelings or motives.
Poster Comment: "But while it may be more repugnant to abuse someone for merely being different, the government is supposed to protect us against other people's actions, not other people's feelings or motives." I wonder what dubya will do, faced with a choice between keeping his word about veto-ing the hate crimes legislation versus being offered the carrot of continuing deep pockets $ for his "liberation" wars. What the sheeple should realize from this game playing is that the Dems are as odious and anti-American as the GOP.
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