Wednesday, December 12, 2007

"Hate Crime" laws seek to end free speech.

National Prayer Network

HATE LAW FOLLIES

By Harmony Grant
26 Nov 07

Demonstrators led by Al Sharpton recently marched on
Washington
to demand justice through federal use of
hate laws. Seeking justice from hate laws is like seeking
weight loss at McDonald's.

Sharpton said every noose-hanging should be
prosecuted. Would that include attention-getting
incidents like when a black student hung a noose
on her dorm room door in an attempt to get out
of university?

And if every word or symbol of racial or religious
hatred is to be prosecuted, when will lawyers file
briefs against those who cuss in Jesus' name or
call Christians' moral beliefs "homophobic?" Along
with blasphemous art like the crucifix hung in
urine, these words certainly seem like symbols
of “religious hatred” of Christianity.

But—as we’ve pointed out innumerable times—
hate laws aren’t an instrument of justice. They
are a political tool designed to privilege certain
social groups and silence others. They end up as
instruments of oppression for those in power,
eventually silencing the very groups who may have
once sought their protection!

Unfortunately, this is still not well understood. Students
in West Virginia also recently rallied. They said hate
crime laws "should have protected" Megan Williams,
victim of days' long horrific torture allegedly at the hands
of six white people. (Their logic is flawed. Shouldn't
existing laws against horrific torture have punished
Megan's attackers—regardless of her skin color?)

Hate crime laws are so complicated that the prosecutor
on the Williams case still hasn't filed these charges,
despite the marches and protests. That should tell
us something.

A number of Jewish skullcaps can be seen on the
news video from the West Virginia rally. Jewish
groups, particularly the Anti-Defamation League
of B'nai B'rith, have always led the charge toward
hate crime laws. ( Watch Rev. Ted Pike's Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians
) Police
from 15 European nations just met in London to
be trained in hate crimes response by Paul
Goldenberg of the American Jewish Committee. The
seminar was organized by the ADL-led
Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE).

Goldenberg said OSCE will launch a hate crimes
information-sharing network on Friday, Nov. 23.
It will “facilitate the exchange of information and
intelligence on hate symbols and organized hate
groups.” This will pave just another dangerous
curve in the highway toward international
censorship of organized Jewry’s critics.

In 2006, the AJC attacked Jewish anti-Zionists
in an essay by Alvin Rosenfield. The work was
widely criticized as a slanderous suppression of
healthy debate. Unfortunately, leftist academics
who resented the essay didn’t recognize the larger
threat. AJC—with the Anti-Defamation League of
B’nai B’rith and the rest of organized Jewry—seeks
to actually criminalize, not just slander, those who
criticize Zionism, Judaism, or other protected
groups. And they are gaining the power to do so.

This week, the US Department of Justice
released a fact sheet on 2007 hate crimes and
civil rights violations. The government says it
prosecuted a record number of civil rights
violations during this past fiscal year. The
FBI reported Monday
that hate crimes rose
8 percent in 2006.

The US government's fact sheet notes that it
received praise from the Anti-Defamation
League for prosecution of several crimes. Given
ADL's tawdry record of domestic spying and
anti-Christianity, this is astonishing. I first
read the comments about ADL praise in a
news story and figured that writer had
chosen to highlight it. But when I double-
checked the government website, there it
was! It speaks to the power of this
non-governmental Jewish advocacy
group, that their gold stars are listed in
an official government fact sheet.

Americans desperately need to understand
the ominous agenda of ADL and other leftist
Jewish organizations that seek to silence
legitimate speech—like moral criticism of
homosexuality or moral criticism of Israel —
through hate crime laws.

Instead, shortsighted leaders like Al Sharpton try
to earn popularity points by foolishly promising
they will provide greater justice.

Writing for the Chicago Tribune, black
columnist Clarence Page says the definition
of hate crime is too narrow! Page argues it
should include black-on-black violence. (Intraracial
violence--white on white and black on black--is
far more common than interracial.) Page
describes the brutal torture of a Haitian mother
and her son in Florida . Page asks, "Was that a
"hate" crime? It certainly wasn't about love."

Unfortunately, Page misses the whole
point. Instead of calling for crimes to be
treated equally--regardless of the skin color
or motives of the attackers or victims--he asks
for hate law preferences to be expanded still
further! He suggests all violence against women
--including "black-inflicted terrors"--should be
prosecuted as hate crimes. This is lunacy!

The muddled thinking doesn't stop this side of the
Atlantic . In Scotland , a lawmaker is trying to get
handicapped and homosexual people included
under existing hate crime laws against racially
or religiously motivated crimes. I recently
commented on British attempts to include
the elderly. Maybe someday we’ll come full
circle—back to equal protection for all.

There are two bright spots in a sky of
thunderheads. A Pennsylvania court ruled that
the legislature must toss out a 2002 amendment
that added "sexual orientation" to protected
status and also enhanced penalties to their
ADL-created state hate law. Conservative
Christians led by Michael Marcavage of Repent
America challenged this amendment after 11
evangelists were arrested under the
amendment for peacefully protesting at
a gay pride parade in Philadelphia three years ago.

On the federal level, the federal hate crimes
bill is in trouble. Conservative Republicans and
liberal Democrats threaten to defeat the arms
bill to which the hate crimes amendment is
attached. (See, We Can Still Kill the Hate Bill)
The Democrats don't want unrestrained
funding for the Iraq war. The Republicans
don't want the hate bill linked to the arms
bill. This is a very unexpected, encouraging
rift in Congress which all who love freedom
should do their best to widen. Although now
in recess, your Senators and House members
should receive this message, either in their
home offices or at the Capitol: "Please don't
vote for the National Defense Appropriations
Act, H.R. 1585 with the hate bill attached."

Let both conservatives and liberals in Congress
know the real aim of hate crime laws:

ending freedom.

http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/hatelawfollies.html

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