From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Aug 29 2001 - 11:53:21 MDT
hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> From: "Louis Newstrom" <nnewstro@bellsouth.net>
>
> > From: "Harvey Newstrom" <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com>
> > > I also think you have an inflated idea of what a hate crime is. Hate crimes
> > > give tougher sentences on criminals who commit violent crimes. They do not
> > > arrest people for mere words or ideas.
> >
> > I would disagree with this. The hate crime law does not give tougher
> > sentences based on the violence of the crime. They give tougher sentences
> > based on what the perp was thinking.
>
> I think you have misread what Harvey wrote, in saying that you disagree.
> Nothing you have written is inconsistent with what Harvey said.
>
> He did not say that the tougher sentences are based on violence of crimes,
> as you suggest. He said that the idea of hate crime laws is to increase
> sentences, not to arrest people for certain words. (I have lost the
> context of his remarks, but perhaps someone had suggested that hate
> crime laws involved arresting people for saying hateful things.)
Well, they have, and it happened up here in Vermont, right across the
river from me in White River Junction. A black cop was dealing with a
drunk and disorderly individual when the individual used a racial
epithet. Cop thereby arrested the individual, charging them with the D&D
as well as a charge for an entirely separate hate crime violation. The
D&D charge was dropped, but the individual was convicted on the hate
crime alone, with jail time, probation and fine.
The perp was a woman, BTW, and claimed that was not her intent, that she
was drunk and did not mean what she said, and apologized.
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