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| Re: Racist assault on Washington Metro (1154792) | |||
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Re: Racist assault on Washington Metro |
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Posted by BusMgr on Sat May 5 17:26:48 2012, in response to Re: Racist assault on Washington Metro, posted by The Silence on Tue May 1 22:46:46 2012. It is a so-called "hate crime," but such crimes should not exist. A person should be punished because of wrongdoing. Beating someone up is wrong, and the person who does so ought to be punished. That a person may possess certain opinions about others may be offensive to many, but it is an opinion that one is entitled to possess, and so long as one does not act on that opinion to the detriment of another person, there is no crime. Such thoughts are protected by the First Amendment, just as other offensive expressions are also protected.Hate crime laws punish a person more severely for a wrong act compared to another person who would commit the same act without the offensive thought. Thus, we are enhancing punishment for the possession of a thought which, by itself, is no crime. This is the imposition of thought police, punishing people because of their opinions. (Now punishing people because of their opinions should be distinguished from punishment based on mens rea. That is, the intent or the manner in which the wrongdoing was committed. But having a constitutionally-protected opinion cannot be the basis of a guilty mind.) The police need to go after, and the DAs need to prosecute, all wrongdoers impartially and without discrimination as to race or other immutable characteristics. Otherwise, some Metro riders will rightfully be fearful of being less protected than others. |
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