When Thought is a Hate Crime

When Thought is a Hate Crime

By Harmony Grant

In New York State, a 16-year-old high school student was jailed and faces felony charges for a note and prank phone call harassing a fellow student, who is black. In NY state, felonies are crimes for which imprisonment of a year or more can be given. Felonies are the worst crimes. Compare: a fistfight is usually a misdemeanor, a speeding ticket, even lesser, is an infraction. [While no one defends this type of behavior, thousands of teenagers harass and make stupid threats against each other every day in American schools -editor] Why was this kid charged with a felony for a stupid prank? His arraignment wasn’t really about the note and prank call. He was arrested to make a statement about social intolerance of certain viewpoints or attitudes against “targeted groups.”Under hate crime laws, certain groups including racial minorities, Jews and homosexuals, enjoy heightened protection. The teen’s black victim is given special privilege not afforded the victim of a race-neutral slam.Hate laws exist to make political statements against racial or religious bias. They say, “These groups have been historically victimized. Bias against them is far worse than bias against anybody else because it terrorizes a larger community. Bias against them is far worse than bias against whites or Christians or straight men, or an individual you just happen to hate for no good reason.”

But the law doesn’t exist to make political or social statements. (Newspapers do.) Criminal law exists to protect inalienable rights that belong to individuals not groups. Groups are inherently changeable. They rise and fall in political and social power and favoritism. They fluctuate as their members intermarry with other groups or move around. Individuals, however, simply live and die. Rights belong to individuals. Crimes are done to individuals. Centuries of experience has shown that laws can only be practically and justly enforced against individuals, not groups.

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith—a powerful Jewish advocacy group—has been working for decades to pass hate laws which shatter American standards of legal justice and individual rights. ADL wants to change the balance of social power in the United States, elevate certain groups and criminalize the Christian, conservative, patriotic ethos of most Americans. For decades they have exaggerated the “threat” of bias-motivated crimes and worked to demonize any attitudes that hint of Christian fundamentalism, nationalism, or especially white (but not black or Jewish) racism.

Hate laws—and especially a federal hate law—are a hot ticket right now. Last month, the Civil Rights Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Kenneth B. Hunter hosted a forum on how to prevent future hate crimes. Co-leaders of the event included reps from big shot organizations and even the government—Ivy R. Williams of PEERS (Parents Education for Eliminating Racism in Schools), Azekah Jennings of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Robert Trestan of the Anti-Defamation League.

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