- As immigrants flood our nation in record numbers, many
Americans want to talk frankly about the situation. But could this someday
be a crime? Could honest talk about immigration someday be as illegal as
stabbing a Latino while yelling, "Wetback!?"
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- It seems unthinkable that the government could deny open
debate on a subject like immigration. Yet a federal hate crimes bill before
Congress will ultimately do just that-crush freedom of speech to favor
"protected classes" (especially racial and religious minorities
and homosexuals) and criminalize so-called "hate speech" against
them. Such "hate speech" includes the most legitimate critiques
of racial difference, protected religions, cultures, or behaviors-and especially
immigration.
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- Hate crime laws-already passed in 45 of our 50 states-ride
a wave of propaganda and misperception. Who isn't against hate? Who doesn't
want to stop crime? But the reality of these laws is dark as any Orwellian
tale. Hate crime laws intensify punishment for crimes motivated by bias
against specially protected groups. This would be bad enough; our government
representatives have no right to create more (and less) protected classes,
and they certainly have no right to mine our thoughts and beliefs, then
punish what they deem incorrect! But hate crime laws get even worse. In
hate law countries such as Canada, they are quickly broadened to punish
pure speech, even if no crime is committed.
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- The White House website's agenda vows to expand hate
crime laws and pass the David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This bill,
HR256, is currently before Congress, along with the David Ray Ritcheson
Act, HR262. The first will enhance federal authority to invade states'
law enforcement when a "hate crime" is committed. Expanding an
already existing 1968 federal hate crimes law (Title 18, Sec. 2a), HR 256
could punish "as a principal" any writer, radio host, or even
average person whose "counsel" incites another to commit a hate
crime.
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- David Ray Ritcheson was a Mexican-American high school
student brutally attacked and sodomized in 2006. He later testified in
Washington, giving his state Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee <http://speaker.house.gov/blog/?p=615>the
opportunity to say lawmakers should "redouble our efforts to prevent
hate crimes by juveniles, which I believe is in the long run the best and
most effective way of eliminating the scourge or hate-motivated crimes
from our society." To lawmakers like Jackson-Lee, "prevention"
means silencing those who allegedly teach juveniles to hate-namely, leaders
and politicians who speak taboo truths about minority populations or issues
like homosexuality and immigration.
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- To silence the politically incorrect, HR 262 will establish
a federal hate crimes command center and a massive re-education program
in all American public schools from kindergarten through college. Unlike
HR 256, which empowers the government to punish hate crimes in states at
will, HR 262 empowers the government to ostensibly "prevent"
hate crimes in states.
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- Obviously, this should disturb every American. It raises
special concern for those worried about immigration. More and more, immigrants
are the poster children of hate law advocates. I have researched hate law
news for the National Prayer Network since 2006, and have seen a noticeable
shift in hate law propaganda, from anti-homosexual toward anti-immigrant
violence. Indeed, a few years ago the federal hate bill was named for Matthew
Shepard, a homosexual allegedly attacked because of his orientation. Today,
it's named for a Mexican-American.
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- We know the future of American conservatives-especially
if their concern is immigration or traditional morality-if speech-chilling
hate laws are passed. It is dark. Look at Europe and Canada. Geert Wilders
is a <http://spectator.org/archives/2009/01/22/death-to-free-speech-in-the-ne>Dutch
politician being prosecuted for a hate crime because he critiqued Muslim
culture, which is fast supplanting the formerly dominant white culture
in the Netherlands. "If current trends continue, the Muslim population
of Europe will nearly double by 2015," says a Brookings scholar, "while
the non-Muslim population will shrink by 3.5 percent." Surely Europeans
can discuss the culture flooding their nation, as Americans can freely
discuss the waves of Latino immigrationright? Well, not so much.
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- In 2008 Wilders released a 10-minute, self-produced film,
"Fitna." Most of the film isn't even his own speech; it's made
of quotes from the Koran and scenes of an Imam calling for Jews' deaths.
Now Wilders is being prosecuted for hate speech, six months after the court
declared his speech valid. To demonstrate the hostility of the rest of
Europe to free speech, <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,499408,00.html>Wilders
has been barred from entering Great Britain, told he would "threaten
community harmonyand therefore, public security."
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- Soon the only place for dissidents like Wilders to be
kept from disrupting "community harmony" will be within the four
walls of a prison cell. Wilders warns that soon any Dutch citizen will
face trial if they oppose the Islamization of Europe. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7842344.stm>He
told the BBC that "the judgment of the court [is] an attack on the
freedom of expression.... Participation in the public debate has become
a dangerous activity. If you give your opinion, you risk being prosecuted....
Who will stand up for our culture if I am silenced?""
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- Naturally, Wilders says he wishes for "a European
kind of 'First Amendment.' I want all the hate speech laws that are only
used against us to be to be abolished in Europe."
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- Unfortunately, it's looking very much like America will
turn into Europe, not the other way around. Latino leaders have demanded
that the FCC investigate "hate speech" on American airwaves and
asked for an update of the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration's hate speech report. Rather than pushing for specific laws,
the Latino advocates want a report on the link between hate speech and
hate-based violence. This will add even more force to the battering ram
that threatens to crush the First Amendment by making speech itself as
illegal as the crimes it is blamed for inciting.
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- In 2008, seven teens were accused of a "hate crime"
after the brutal stabbing of an immigrant from Ecuador. Hate law advocates
seized the opportunity to blame political speech. Leaders of the local
immigrant alliance blamed the debate on immigration for fostering hate.
A local pastor and immigrant advocate charged that "some of the highest
leaders of our community also have blood on their hands." Local county
executive Steve Levy especially drew fire. An immigration reformer, Levy
has passed measures such as requiring contractors to check workers' status.
A prominent Latino leader told the press that Levy "brought this hate
that exists here amongst the Hispanic community. He has legislated over
and over again against Hispanic immigrants. ... He should be the person
not welcome in this community."
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- Wow, so now a lawmaker who enforces the law-isn't that
his job?-is responsible for this brutal killing.
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- A NY Times editorial brought up the immigrant's murder
as a final zinger after smearing vdare.com's Peter Brimelow, Pat Buchanan,
and every "Latino-bashing" politician who wants to seal the border.
"It is easy to mock white-supremacist views as pathetic and to assume
that nativism in the age of Obama is on the way outBut racism has a nasty
habit of never going away" These abusive slams (equating immigration
critics with white supremacists and racists) would be easier to overlook
if prison chains weren't rattling behind them.
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- This is the terrifying way media and hate law advocates
equate certain speech with violent crime. Hate laws will put bite behind
that rhetoric, first allowing for federal surveillance of non-violent "haters"
like Peter Brimelow, and for widespread police and public education against
their dangerous views-and then, finally, allowing for arrest and prosecution
of people who have never committed any crime except to open their mouths.
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- Just look at mainstream media's reporting on "hate
crimes." Generally speaking, "hate crimes" by whites against
minorities or homosexuals are quickly reported. But the MSM and hate law
advocates never mention that most "hate crimes" are committed
by minorities against each other. A full 80 percent of violent crimes involve
victims and criminals of the same race. "For the 20 percent of violent
crimes that are interracial, 15 percent involve black offenders and white
victims" (Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics, 1998,
James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter, p.17) Only two percent are white-on-black.
Is this a staggering epidemic demanding unprecedented federal intervention?
I think not.
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- Why are only white crimes trumpeted as a problem? These
laws are aimed at controlling political discourse not violent crime. In
Germany and most of Europe, political "hate speech" doesn't have
to be connected to any kind of criminal act to be prosecuted. The speech
itself is the crime.
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- The <http://www.germanlawjournal.com/article.php?id=225>German
Law Journal says its nation's hate laws "specifically refrain from
requiring that racist messages lead to a clear and present danger of imminent
lawless action before becoming punishable [emphasis mine]. A distant and
generalized threat to the public peace and to life and dignity, particularly
of minorities, suffices for legal sanctions irrespective of whether and
when such danger would actually manifest itselfhate speech is generally
prohibited-it is 'speech minus' or 'low-value speech,' even if it addresses
issues of high political importance."
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- Since President Obama powerfully supports these hate
bills, the House Judiciary Committee says it will move HR 256 and 262 rapidly
through. If these bills arrive on the floor of the House, they will almost
certainly be passed by the Democrat majority. It is vital that all who
cherish freedom should call their members of Congress now to protest this
legislation. To do much more to save freedom, call the 40 crucial members
of the House Judiciary Committee (available at <http://www.truthtellers.org/>www.truthtellers.org).
Call toll-free 1-877-851-6437. Toll is 1-202-225-3121.
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