Saturday, January 5, 2008

Hate Crimes, Lionheart, and Confederate Statues

A blogger called Wolf Howling is doing his best to publicize the pending arrest of fellow blogger, Lionheart.
Lionheart's offense? (And all praise to Allah, these laws are on the books in The U.K., not the U.S.....)
He has criticized Islam, the religion of peace.
Hit the link above for details.
Hit this one for Lionheart's point of view.
Here's more from Wolf Howling:
The Public Order Act of 1986 makes it an offense to "stir up racial hatred." The act defines "racial hatred" as "hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins." The law does not define the word "hatred." The specific provisions of the Public Order Act of 1986 mentioned by the police in their e-mail to Lionheart are:
18 (1) A person who uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting, is guilty of an offence if—
(a) he intends thereby to stir up racial hatred, or(b) having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.27 (3) A person guilty of an offence under this Part is liable— (a) on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years or a fine or both.


We have some idiotic laws on the books that allow for additional penalties when a lawbreaker is motivated by "hate"....i.e. hate crimes.
In the U.S., these offenses can already be prosecuted under existing law. Hate Crime legislation comes about when politicians (usually from The Left) need a wedge issue. Who's in favor of Hate?
If you favor leaving Hate Crime legislation on the books, please consider the following:
I think it was George Will who recently laid out this scenario....Three Seventeen Year Olds were recently arrested for defacing a Confederate Memorial Statue in Montgomery, Alabama. If it turns out that the three kids were African-Americans, should they receive additional penalties for committing Hate Crimes?

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