Hate Crime Laws Debate
Penalty-enhancement hate crime laws are traditionally justified on the grounds that, in Chief Justice Rehnquist's words, "this conduct is thought to inflict greater individual and societal harm.... bias-motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest."
Some people object to penalty-enhancement and federal prosecution laws because they believe they offer preferred protection to certain individuals over others. There is less opposition to data collection statutes.
Read more about this topic: Hate Crime Laws In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words hate, crime, laws and/or debate:
“The richest gifts we can bestow are the least marketable. We hate the kindness which we understand.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“How could passion run so deep
Had I never thought
That the crime of being born
Blackens all our lot?”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)