Conviction of a hate crime carries stepped up punishment, above and beyond that meted out for the attack. The bill would allow the federal government to help state and local authorities investigate hate crimes.
Representative Lamar Smith, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, helped lead the charge against the bill, arguing it was misdirected and discriminatory.
"All violent crimes must be vigorously prosecuted," Smith said. "Unfortunately, this bill undermines one of the most basic principles of our criminal justice system -- 'equal justice for all.'"
"Justice will now depend on the race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other protected status of the victim," Smith said. "It will allow different penalties to be imposed for the same crime."
Earlier this year, Congress passed two other major bills derailed during the Bush administration.
3 comments:
QUICK NOTE - JUST FOUND YOU TODAY AND I GREATLY ADMIRE YOUR COMMITMENT AND DEDICATION IN SUPPORT OF GAY PEOPLE
Frankly, Lamar Smith has a point. All violent crimes should be treated as hate crimes of one sort or another and should be forcefully prosecuted with tough sentences. If "gay" violence is separated as something different, then the gay communtiy is also being singled out from the mainstream and will be looked upon as legally different. Is this what we want????
If the data suggest, as I believe they strongly do, that the gay community - as a community - is the target of more than its share of violence, do you solve that by pretending there is no issue regarding how many people hate faggots simply because they're faggots?
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