First off, let me say that I do not like political posts on security blogs. I cannot tell people what not to post on their own blogs. It is their business. But I don’t have to like it, and I will say so.
Having said that, this is a political post – though not in the sense that I am endorsing or criticizing any candidate. It is about a political issue that really struck a nerve with me today, and I really can’t keep these thoughts to myself. I am probably opening myself up to a flame war, and oh well if it happens. So here goes.
Now, I have to state for the record that I disagree with hate crime laws for the most part because they politicize a lot of actions that are already a crime in the first place. I just don’t think we need those laws because all it does is cause racial strife when the person simply needs to be punished for the crime. I say all of that because of the story going around about the effigy of Sarah Palin being hanged in a Halloween display in West Hollywood, California (CA is not exactly a red state, so I guess it is not a big surprise – BTW, John McCain was also being burned in the display). When I saw that this Halloween display did not meet the criteria of a hate crime, I had to start wondering what that definition is and what would have happened if that had been Barack Obama in that display.
Granted, that is not a hugely original thought. Every other comment on that story asked the same question (and a lot of freaks got out of control over it in their comments). But seriously, if Barack Obama was being hanged in effigy, I seriously doubt the cops would not be saying that it "doesn’t rise to the level of hate crime".
There would be outrage by everyone, including ME, because it would be overtly racist and motivated by hate. But is hate inherently limited by the race of the individual it is propagated against? For that matter, is hate drawn around racial lines only, and not by other factors? Can’t hate be motivated by political differences, as this display is? Can’t hate be motivated by a person who doesn’t like the color green and attacks his neighbor because he painted his house that color? Do you see where I am going with this?
If we are going to define a crime along the lines of emotion and intent, then we HAVE to do so equally across the board, and that is where these types of laws fail. They are defined by politics, and this country needs to get off it’s PC ass and start doing things from a more practical perspective. I understand the issues around race and the problems we have had in this country. I wasn’t around during the race riots, but I was raised in a small Southern town that still had scars from those days when I was growing up. The racial lines are still very evident there. But if we are going to keep bringing up this issue in this country and then ignore the fact that hate and racism (not synonymous terms) can happen in both directions, then we are never going to progress beyond seeing people as colors first.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Vet
