Posted on 05/04/2007 8:32:34 AM PDT by Graybeard58
The House voted Thursday to expand federal hate crime categories to include violent attacks against gays and people targeted because of gender, acting just hours after the White House threatened a veto.
The legislation, passed 237-180, also would make it easier for federal law enforcement to take part in or assist local prosecutions involving bias-motivated attacks. Similar legislation is also moving through the Senate, setting the stage for a possible veto showdown with President Bush.
"This is an important vote of conscience, of a statement of what America is, a society that understands that we accept differences," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the only openly gay man in the House, presided over the chamber as the final vote was taken.
The vote came after fierce lobbying from opposite sides by civil rights groups, who have been pushing for years for added protections against hate crimes, and social conservatives, who say the bill threatens the right to express moral opposition to homosexuality and singles out groups of citizens for special protection.
The White House said state and local criminal laws already cover the new crimes defined under the bill and there was "no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement."
It also noted that the bill leaves other classes, such as the elderly, the military and police officers, without similar special status.
"Our criminal justice system has been built on the ideal of equal justice for all," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, top Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "Under this bill justice will no longer be equal, but depend on the race, sex, sexual orientation, disability or status of the victim."
Republicans, in a parliamentary move that would have effectively killed the bill, tried to add seniors and the military to those qualifying for hate crimes protection. It was defeated on a mainly party-line vote.
Hate crimes under current federal law apply to acts of violence against individuals on the basis of race, religion, color, or national origin. Federal prosecutors have jurisdiction only if the victim is engaged in a specific federally protected activity such as voting.
The House bill would extend the hate crimes category to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability and give federal authorities greater leeway to participate in hate crime investigations. It would approve $10 million over the next two years to help local law enforcement officials cover the cost of hate crime prosecutions.
Federal investigators could step in if local authorities were unwilling or unable to act. The Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, said this federal intervention could have made a difference in the case of Brandon Teena, the young Nebraska transsexual depicted in the movie "Boys Don't Cry" who was raped and murdered after two friends discovered that he was biologically female.
But Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, warned that the true intent of the bill was "to muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality."
If you read the Bible in a certain way, he told his broadcast listeners, "you may be guilty of committing a 'thought crime."'
"It does not impinge on public speech or writing in any way," countered Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., pointing out that the bill reaffirms First Amendment and free speech rights.
Conyers said in a statement that state and local authorities will continue to prosecute the overwhelming majority of such cases and the bill requires the attorney general or another high-ranking Justice Department official to approve any federal prosecutions.
The legislation restates already-enacted penalties. Those using guns to commit crimes defined under the bill face prison terms of up to 10 years. Crimes involving kidnapping or sexual assault or resulting in death can bring life terms.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is named for Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who died after he was beaten and tied to a fence in Wyoming in 1998. His mother Judy, who heads a foundation in her son's name and has been a leading advocate of the legislation, addressed House Democrats before the vote to ask for their backing.
The Judiciary Committee cited FBI figures that there have been more than 113,000 hate crimes since 1991, including 7,163 in 1995. It said that racially motivated bias accounted for 55 percent of those incidents, religious bias for 17 percent, sexual orientation bias for 14 percent and ethnicity bias for 14 percent.
The bill is H.R. 1592
Police state ... weren’t the donks just warning us about Bush’s police state and the risk to your library card?
Get ready for militant homos.
Shouldn’t they change the name to “Thought Crime Laws” instead. Seems more fitting.
Leviticus 18:22 = Hate Speech 2007
The murder of Matthew Shepard was a hideous, sick crime. But it was already illegal by the standards of the day. Does anybody actually think that "hate crime" legislation would have saved Matthew Shepard? Can you imagine the guys who perpetrated the crime saying to themselves, "wait a minute, I'm down with kidnapping, beating and murder, but no way am I going to commit a hate crime." This stupid, redundant, sentimental, feel-good and ultimately unconstitional legislation would not have saved the poor guy.
A bartender and a cook at a restaurant in my neighborhood got into a fight. Everyone who was there knows that the cook was the protagonist. Well as usual, the bartender won. However the cook sued him for damages. i.e the replacement of a tooth. During consultations with his lawyer the cook told her he was Gay. She went on a crusade against the bartender and the restaurant. Fortunately she lost. One of the other cooks that testified for the bartender is a Lesbian and the owner’s twin brother died from AIDS.
Who are they to devalue the harming of any innocent person over another? Some psycho or just plain evil person harming any citizen is just as much a "hate crime" no matter the villain's motive, the race, or the sexual orientation of the victim.
Well said.
Geat, the “Feel Good” congress. We’ll vote whatever makes use Feel Good about ourselves, as people. No more attacks on people for being fat, ugly, short, tall, poor, rich.. oh, wait, its ok if you attack someone for being rich. Greedy M-F’s...
Why not add attacks on wealthy people as hate crimes? What about women? Children? People from a different neighborhood? People wearing the wrong color in the wrong part of town. These are all “hate crimes” that need to be dealt with too.
We find in Canada the "hate crime" laws give a certain status to certain people. The first thing that some of them do in any dispute, is to cry "hate". They usually intersperse it with names such as, "homophobe, racist" and "Nazi", ad nauseum. Strangely enough none of them probably ever saw a Nazi. Again, it is human nature to use whatever position suits them. The homosexual will use it again and again.
I pray for a higher power to guide the President in this matter.
I really resent that a psycho could harm my loved ones and they wouldn't qualify for as stern a punishment. It's the average person who should protest these hate crimes and demand all our families be protected with these extra penalties, but the average person just takes this stuff on the chin.
A sodomite gets angry and shoves a Bible preacher. Or the pervert does something that forces the Bible preacher to defend himself or others.
The defending of one’s self will be recorded as a violent act committed against a pervert and hence . . . a “hate crime” has taken place. After all, the preaching indicated hatred, didn’t it?
The sodomite crowd in the USA will instigate encounters under which their lawyers can play th hate crime card.
“attacks” will include Christians speaking out against homosexuals.
They want to mislead everyone to believe that this bill only covers physical assault.
The dragging murder of a Black Man in Texas was also used against President Bush when the victim’s daughter made the ad saying that when President Bush vetoed the Hate Crimes Bill it was like her father died all over again. Two of the three perps got the Death penalty.
Oh, how I wish the Republicans had enough ba**s to introduce the Mary Jo Kophecnie amendment to this piece of crap legislation.
So who does that leave out? Who are the greatest villains of all time to have committed the most heinous crimes since the beginning of time? The answer is the straight white male!
All you need is a little math (set theory) to understand who is a second class citizen in these elitist socialist fagot United States of America!
Never back an animal into a corner, you may not like what happens! And if the white male in this society ever grows a set of balls instead of being the milk fed calf being led to slaughter for this filth, Katey bar the door! And, by the way, all of these special hate crime laws, collectively, seem to nullify the equal protection clause of the of the constitution which might as well not exist!
Ditto for the murder of James Byrd (which BTW, the Left tried to slander Bush with it). The killer of Byrd has already been sentenced to death. What should we do, put two needles into his arm?
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