Protecting us all from the WHAMs

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views November 17, 2003]

Be they putative Democrats or Republicans in power, the same forces are at work when it comes to influencing legislation in this country. This is why the "hate crime" machine just won't go away. With laws already poisoning the American system at local levels, the thrust for a federal law to punish those who might be thinking "impure" thoughts during the commission of a crime comes from "anti-racist" lobbyists and self-appointed "watchdog" groups. [See "Increasing 'Hate Crime' Punishment Violates American Principles" and "And now make way for 'word crimes.'" For these monitors of social behavior, promoting the fear of impending violence stemming from "hate" is imperative.

Although homosexual activists are blamed for much of the pressure for laws against hate, the inspiration for punishing "thought crimes" did not come from this group. In application, thus far, these laws have been used primarily to prosecute young white males for acts generally deemed "racist" or "anti-Semitic." In 2001, in Idaho, a white man was sentenced to spend jail time for publicly shouting the word "Nigger!" at a black man who was in an altercation with the white man's wife. The white judge was proud to demonstrate that he would not permit "racism" to prevail without punishment.

Of course, the law might very well be a godsend for homosexuals, offering them greater legal protection when a sexual advance backfires and they face potential violence from an enraged heterosexual. The notion that homosexuals, as a group, face widespread discrimination in employment or housing is an outright falsehood, but is the entrée needed to eventually eliminate all public resistance to their goal of full acceptance of their sexual proclivity.

The passage of a federal hate crime law will move the country one more step away from constitutional guarantees of free speech and towards what author Paul Craig Roberts describes as "crimes of opinion, a defining feature of Oceania in George Orwell's 1984." Some states already have mandatory minimum sentences for crimes that are deemed to stem from particular thoughts. No doubt, any federal law will also come equipped with similar sentencing guidelines.

In "Hate Crimes Bill Itself a Hate Crime," on the Lew Rockwell site, Paul Craig Roberts tells of Senators Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy's campaign to get a federal law passed, in order "to expand the federal government's power to prosecute 'hate crimes.'" He writes:

Hatch’s bill assumes that women need protection from men’s hatred, blacks need protections from the hatred of whites, the disabled require protection from being hated by the able-bodied, and homosexuals need protecting from heterosexuals.

The effect of Hatch’s bill is to divide the population into a victim class and a perpetrator class: White, heterosexual, able-bodied males (WHAMs) are the perpetrators, and everyone else their victims.

If a homosexual is assaulted, a hate-crime will have been committed in addition to the crime of assault. But if a heterosexual is assaulted, it will merely be an act of assault. Similarly, if a black is assaulted, robbed or murdered, a hate-crime charge will be added if the assailant is white. Rape itself can become a hate crime. . . .

Once the new law is on the books, there will be demands that it be enforced. In the majority of cases, prosecutors will have no basis but presumption for the hate-crime charge. If the victim is in a "protected category"(blacks, females, disabled, homosexuals) and the perpetrator is a WHAM, a hate-crime can be presumed. . . .

The Hatch-Kennedy bill means that WHAMs will have to suffer abuse, verbal or otherwise, from "protected categories." A WHAM who stands up for himself or his wife risks being charged with a hate-crime. WHAMs who cannot accept the double standard will end up in jail. . . .

Just as the application of asset freezes has expanded far beyond the Mafia and asset forfeiture has expanded far beyond drug dealers, the brand new Patriot Act is already being used to prosecute crimes that have nothing to do with terrorism. Likewise, the Hatch-Kennedy bill will be used to find hate wherever prosecutors want it to be.

-- Paul Craig Roberts is author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice (available on this website).

-- Among the works of Laird Wilcox are: The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-racist 'Watchdog' Groups and Crying Wolf: Hate Crime Hoaxes in America. These are important monographs for all who are concerned about the growing abuse of power by self-styled "human rights" groups. Visit his website, Editorial Research Service.

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