Red State alerts us that the the upcoming Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act is closely approaching a vote. Our opinion is that all violent crimes are “hate” crimes and that this bill is unnecessary. Red State has further concerns.
This bill is an egregious example of liberal overreach. If passed we will see any manner of sexual perversions legitimized as unassailable and any crime or speech against these proclivities will be suddenly termed a “hate crime.” We will also see crimes against gays and lesbians suddenly deemed as somehow worse than crimes against straight people simply by the virtue that the victims are gay.
We will also have codified crime based on thought if this bill passes. How will a judge or prosecutor determine if “hate” was the basis for crime, anyway? How can a jury know that a gay man was beaten because he is gay as opposed to because he didn’t give a mugger his wallet? And what of religious speech against certain sexual proclivities? Will that be deemed a “hate crime” now?
There’s also this small detail that ABC News has confirmed that there was no hate crime motivation whatsoever in the Shepard case way back in 2004.
Price now says that at the time of the crime she thought things would go easier for McKinney if his violence were seen as a panic reaction to an unwanted gay sexual advance.
But today, Price tells Vargas the initial statements she made were not true and tells Vargas that McKinney’s motive was money and drugs. “I don’t think it was a hate crime at all. I never did,” she said.
Former Laramie Police Detective Ben Fritzen, one of the lead investigators in the case, also believed robbery was the primary motive. “Matthew Shepard’s sexual preference or sexual orientation certainly wasn’t the motive in the homicide,” he said…. Read More… Read More
“If it wasn’t Shepard, they would have found another easy target. What it came down to really is drugs and money and two punks that were out looking for it,” Fritzen said.
We would love to see our country have less violent crime as much as everyone else would. Stealthily passing a bill that is deliberately based on deception and has a huge probability of First Amendment rights encroachments is not the way to go about it.
