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January 30, 2009
Hope and Change Will Mean Abandoning Equality Before the Law
Posted by Dave Blount at January 30, 2009 8:13 AM
Chairman Zero's website features a promise to expand hate crimes statutes:
President Obama and Vice President Biden will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice's Criminal Section.
"Hate crimes" is a concept by which the notion of equality before the law is discarded in exchange for special legal protection for groups favored by liberals. In other words, those who are not blacks, Muslims, or homosexuals are officially classified as second-class citizens. To get an idea of what this will mean to our society, we need look no farther than Europe, as documented at The Brussels Journal:
One of the famous victims of hate crime legislation in Europe is Brigitte Bardot. Last June the former sex symbol, once considered to be the very icon of France, was given a two-month suspended prison sentence and fined €15,000 by a court in Paris. Mrs. Bardot was convicted for "instigation of hatred" towards the Muslim community because in December 2006 she had sent a letter to Nicolas Sarkozy, then the Interior Minister of France, to demand that Muslims anaesthesize animals before slaughtering them. In the letter she said, referring to Muslims, that she was "fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its habits." Harboring and expressing such sentiments is a crime in France.
Dieudonné M'Bala is one of France's new icons. He is a French comedian who is known for his anti-Semitism. Mr. M'Bala claims Jews are "a mafia that controls everything in France" and harbors feelings about Jews which are similar Mrs. Bardot's feelings about Muslims: France is under the thumb of the Jews, who are destroying it and imposing their values. In 2004 Mr. M'Bala was taken to court in Paris for violating French laws against incitation to racial or religious hatred, but the court ruled that he was not violating the law. Why did Mrs. Bardot get a suspended prison sentence and a fine of €15,000, while Mr. B'Bala went free? Because Mrs. Bardot and Mr. M'Bala are no longer equal under the law.
In October 2006 Codie Stott, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Salford, England, was arrested for racism and spent three-and-a-half hours in police custody because she had refused to study with a group of five Asian pupils who did not speak English. When the Asians began talking in Urdu, Codie went to speak to the teacher. "I said 'I'm not being funny, but can I change groups because I can't understand them?' But the teacher started shouting and screaming, saying 'It's racist, you're going to get done by the police'." A complaint was made to the police and Codie was placed under arrest. She was not prosecuted as she was too young, but the experience was traumatic for the young girl. The same applies to Jamie Bauld from Cumbernauld, Scotland, an 18-year-boy with Down's syndrome and the mental age of a five-year-old. In September 2007 he was charged with "racial assault" after he had pushed an Asian girl on the playground.
There's more…
Hate crime legislation is used to silence the famous and the innocent, but also the people's democratically elected representatives. In January 2007 Christian Vanneste, a member of the French Parliament, was convicted by the Court of Appeal of Douai because two years earlier during a debate in the parliament and afterwards on television he had said that "homosexual behavior endangers the survival of humanity" and that "heterosexuality is morally superior to homosexuality." Mr. Vanneste, a member of the governing UMP party of President Sarkozy, was fined €3,000. The Court also ordered him to pay €3,500 in damages to each of the three homosexual activist organizations that had taken him to court, plus the expense of publishing the verdict in three newspapers. The three organizations welcomed the court ruling, saying that it "aims to punish homophobic comments which should be fought because they inspire and legitimize verbal and physical attacks."
Last week Susanne Winter, an elected member of the Austrian Parliament, was convicted by a court in Graz to a suspended jail sentence of three months and a fine of €24,000 for "inciting racial hatred and degradation of religious symbols and religious agitation." At a meeting of the Austrian Freedom Party FPÖ in January 2008, Mrs. Winter had said that the prophet Muhammad was "a child molester" since he married a six-year-old girl, and that he was "a warlord" who had written the Koran during "epileptic fits." She had also said that Islam is "a totalitarian system of domination that should be cast back to its birthplace on the other side of the Mediterranean" and warned for "a Muslim immigration tsunami," stating that "in 20 or 30 years, half the population of Austria will be Muslim" if the present immigration policies continue.
Following these remarks, Muslim extremists threatened to kill Mrs. Winter, who was subsequently placed under police protection. This did not persuade the judge, Christoph Lichtenberg, to be more lenient. He told Mrs. Winter: "You have only one goal: to gain votes by a despicable method, by appealing to xenophobic feelings." Judge Lichtenberg said a severe punishment was asked for in order to prevent Mrs. Winter from voicing similar opinions during her next election campaign.
Also last week, the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, decided to prosecute Geert Wilders, an elected member of the Dutch Parliament, for "the instigation of hatred against Muslims" as the producer of Fitna, a short documentary about the Koran. In his movie, which can be seen here, Mr Wilders says that the Koran calls for violence against Jews and other non-Muslims. Mr. Wilders lives under constant police protection following death threats from Koran readers.
A few weeks earlier, on 3 January, Harry van Bommel, a Socialist member of the Dutch Parliament, took part in a demonstration during which he called for an "intifada" against Israel and marched with demonstrators who were shouting "Jews to the gas." Will Mr. van Bommel, like Mr. Wilders, be charged with incitement to racial hatred? Will he be given the same treatment as Mr. Wilders? Considering that equality under the law is no longer guaranteed, this is far from certain. Indeed, while Mr. Wilders will be prosecuted, Mr. van Bommel is likely to go free.
One noticeable fact in hate crime prosecutions is that those prosecuted are often members of European majority groups, such as heterosexuals, non-Muslims or non-Socialists. Hate speech, racial slurs or religious insults directed against a majority group do not seem to be as equally punishable under hate crimes legislation as those directed against minorities. Unlike Susanne Winter, Alfred Hrdlicka, an Austrian "artist," who last year depicted Jesus and his apostles engaging in homosexual acts of sodomy during the Last Supper, has not been indicted, let alone sentenced. Depicting Jesus sodomizing his apostles is not considered to be a "degradation of religious symbols" in Austria, but referring to the historic fact that Muhammad married a six-year old girl is.
To some extent the First Amendment protects Americans from the censorship hates crimes legislation have imposed in Europe. But liberals regard the Constitution as a "living document" — i.e., it says whatever they say it says. It will take armed resistance to prevent the First and Second Amendments from going the way of the Tenth.
Anyone who has suffered the misfortune of being surrounded by liberal elitists knows that they strongly prefer Europe to America, so it's hardly surprising that their conception of "Change" involves remaking the country in Europe's image. Unfortunately, they are enamored of an image of Europe deep into decline.
On a tip from Puffdaddy.
