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- Newsgroups: co.politics
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!boulder!csn!ncar!colossus.cgd.ucar.edu!gary
- From: gary@colossus.cgd.ucar.edu (Gary Strand)
- Subject: Re: What is a "hate crime"?
- Message-ID: <1993Jan21.140729.19278@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Sender: news@ncar.ucar.edu (USENET Maintenance)
- Organization: Climate and Global Dynamics Division/NCAR, Boulder, CO
- References: <1993Jan6.234843.5256@ncar.ucar.edu> <1993Jan8.062734.3142@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> <1993Jan20.052237.11178@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
- Distribution: co
- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 14:07:29 GMT
- Lines: 39
-
- sm> Suzanne Morine
-
- sm> As for society spurning group hates, I meant how all of us must recognise
- our small part in the marginalizing of groups, a la the south after the
- civil war, a la germany in the '30's.
-
- Half my ancestors weren't even in the US until after 1900, and I have never
- been a citizen of Germany. Why am *I* in some "small part" responsible for
- actions that occurred before I was born?
-
- sm> How, as a society, we've decided to never forget that societies must be
- responsible for what they as a group do to sub-groups.
-
- Societies aren't responsible, individuals are.
-
- sm> I see such things as anti-discrimination laws, and hate crime laws, as
- tools to deter people's blatantly marginalizing people (i.e. saying "you're
- fired because you're a queer," or repeatedly egging cars outside of a cer-
- tain meeting place).
-
- Should the infamous Shawn Slater be charged with hate crimes? He stood at the
- Capitol building and spewed anti-black, anti-gay, anti-Semitic and a whole
- bunch more anti-X slogans and phrases. A more clear case of a "hate crime"
- would be difficult to find. Why hasn't he been charged with anything?
-
- Also, what about the young black men who kicked and beat Colleen Kelly, al-
- most to death? In fact, one of the men has been charged with attempted mur-
- der. Apparently they also shouted racial epithets at Kelly. Should they al-
- so be charged with hate crimes?
-
- sm> If better tools for that deterrent are found, we would use them.
-
- Easy. Use better ideas to battle idiots like Slater. Don't *ever* make the
- mistake of letting the State decide which ideas are too dangerous to be al-
- lowed. Doing so just might result in *your* ideas being illegal.
-
- --
- Gary Strand Opinions stated herein are mine alone and are
- strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu not representative of NCAR, UCAR, or the NSF
-