Thought Crime Legislation
Pres. Obama has signed into law the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Act. This is a big step in a very dangerous direction. The left apparently believes that prosecuting ideas is a good idea. If someone is murdered it is a crime regardless of who they are or why it happened. Are they somehow more dead if they were gay?
A number of years ago (actually…quite a few years come to think of it) there was came to be known as the “Water Buffalo Incident” at the University of Pennsylvania. To make a long story short a student accused of racism was interrogated by campus administrators and asked if he was “thinking racist thoughts” the night of the incident. If a victim of a crime is gay will federal prosecutors be brought in to ask whether a suspect was thinking homophobic thoughts?
If prosecuting ideas is such a great idea maybe we should add a few more categories. How about politicians, journalists and lawyers? They are invariably among the most disliked professions in the country. Why shouldn’t they be protected too? Or what about making anti-Americanism a crime? After all, what could be worse than hating the country that has created so much wealth and protected so many freedoms?
It’s not hard to imagine this having a chilling effect on free speech over time. There will be politically motivated prosecutions and there will be court rulings that expand federal power to prosecute politically incorrect ideas. You don’t have to look far to find hate crimes legislation used for just that purpose.