subject: Hate Crime Legislation and The 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause [print this page] Hate Crime Legislation and The 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause
If a federal law is legislated that specifically, and uniquely, limits the criminal definition of hate only to precipitating states of mind producing acts of violence against people of minority skin color (or race) and homosexual orientation, then there remains a poignant inexplicable gap between the defined and the undefined, as to the states of mind producing violence against, for example, people who are very rich by those who are very poor, or by rich people against poor human beings in this country, who strongly believe that laws should be passed to redistribute the wealth of capitalists for the good of the masses (communists).
Such ideology has, in the past, been the basis for months and, even, years of U.S. congressional deliberation and the legislation of laws making certain political affiliations crimes punishable by severe criminal investigation, social humiliation, and, even, imprisonment. Moreover, religious dogma practiced by church-going Americans is, in and of itself, ideological, and extremely convoluted in nature, and does not confine itself to issues not associated with only particular types of moral behavior.
Therefore, if it is hate that causes white heterosexuals to act violently toward people of a different skin color, or homosexuals, is it an equal, but opposite, hatred that causes black people, or homosexuals, to act violently toward white heterosexuals who only voice a vehement dislike of black people and homosexuals?
Who is to say just how many individuals in the U.S., between the years 1917 through 1970, suffered violent death and injury at the hands of other human beings who hated their political, economic, or religious affiliations? Was it hate that caused Senator Joseph McCarthy to spend months on the floor of the U.S. Senate, at taxpayer expense, raving fanatically, accusing noted Americans of Communist Party affiliation and for the mere ideological support of socialism?
Is it hate that causes a human being, who vehemently opposes abortion, to attack another human being exiting an abortion clinic, after having had an abortion performed, calling that individual, and the doctor who performed the abortion, murderers? Further, is it also, perhaps, hate that causes a picketing homosexual to violently attack a Christian minister after he delivers a sermon to his congregation quoting, from the Bible, scripture graphically describing the Old Testament destruction of the gay communities of Sodom and Gomorrah, publicly condemning the practice of homosexuality?
