Does Michigan Really Need A Hate Crimes Unit?
Ever since we have been passing hate crime bills in the United States from either the federal or state level I have always asked myself why. Why do we need a special category of “hate” in our legal system?
To me a crime is a crime no matter what the motivation of the perpetrator is. If I as a white man is attacked by a black man should that mean that black man should get more time in jail because he called me a cracker during the attack? The answer to me is no, an attack on me is an attack. Why should a white man or women get less of a sentence for attacking me than a black man or women and vice versa?
You might say that the motivation for the attack matters, does it really? If a person attacks me because I am white or for some other reason the penalties should all be the same. Is anyone really going to be able to determine what the true motivation of the attack was, in most cases absolutely not?
Michigan’s Attorney General, Democrat Dana Nessel wants to start a hate database and now wants to start a new Hate Crimes Unit in Michigan. Who exactly decides what crime will be designated as a “hate” crime? Well the people in charge at the time will make that decision, sounds a little subjective to me. One persons “hate” crime is another person’s crime, is that how we want our legal system to work?
The Detroit Free Press is reporting about AG Nessel answering questions in front of the Senate Oversight Committee concerning her desire for a hate crimes unit.
According to AG Nessel a “hate” crime is defined as when a crime victim is targeted because of their race, religion, gender or ethnicity. How exactly will you be able to determine that unless the perpetrator explicitly states they committed this crime because of “race, religion, gender or ethnicity”. Other than that it is all subjective and I do not want anyone in authority using their definition of “hate” on whether to charge me for a hate crime.
If Michigan’s AG determines you committed a “hate” crime that would subject you to additional charges and enhanced penalties upon conviction.
What if AG Nessel started to decide what she believes is “hate” speech. AG Nessel has proven herself as a liberal activist person before she was AG and during her short time as Michigan’s Attorney General. We all know that the far left and their activist want everyone to clamp down on “hate speech” and “hate speech” to them is anyone who disagrees with them or says something they do not like. Believe me I have had some pretty hateful words thrown at me either on my radio show, email, Facebook comments and even articles written about me. Should those people who made those statements be charged with a “hate” crime?
AG Nessel stated to the Senate Oversight Committee:
There’s been a 30% increase in the number of hate crimes in this state…With us being the fifth highest in the country in the number of hate crimes, I thought it was necessary to create a specialized unit to tackle this problem head on.
Those numbers are misleading due to the fact that those statistics were based on increased reporting mechanism and not actually increases. Yes if you choose to believe those numbers the numbers did go up, but they went up due to the government asking more groups to report crimes and those groups’ loose interpretations of a hate crime as well as not accounting for false allegations. Groups have looked at those new statistics and found when addressing these new factors hate crimes committed are flat.
AS the committee chairman Senator Ed McBroom stated during the proceedings:
Who judges what hate speech is and isn't hateful and that seems to me to be a bit of a subjective decision and that seems like a dangerous precedent.
Do you really want anyone who has the power to throw you in jail to have the ability to increase your penalties because they believe you committed a “hate crime” in their eyes and minds? Add onto that the policing of speech and whether they believe your speech is deemed legally “hateful”, then what.
There truly is a slide and that slide is getting more slippery every day.
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