Tom Hillgardner  🌻 🌹Compte certifié

In New York, if you commit an assault on a white person while calling him "cracker" or "goyim" you can be charged with a hate crime.

PL § 485.00 - "The legislature finds and determines as follows: criminal acts involving violence, intimidation and destruction of property based upon bias and prejudice have become more prevalent in New York state in recent years. (cont.)

The intolerable truth is that in these crimes, commonly and justly referred to as "hate crimes", victims are intentionally selected, in whole or in part, because of their race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, (cont.)

religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation. Hate crimes do more than threaten the safety and welfare of all citizens. They inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional damage and tear at the very fabric of free society. (cont.)

Crimes motivated by invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire (cont.)

communities and vitiate the civility that is essential to healthy democratic processes. In a democratic society, citizens cannot be required to approve of the beliefs and practices of others, but must never commit criminal acts on account of them. (cont.)

Current law does not adequately recognize the harm to public order and individual safety that hate crimes cause. Therefore, our laws must be strengthened to provide clear recognition of the gravity of hate crimes and the compelling importance of preventing their recurrence.(cont)

The legislature finds and determines as follows: criminal acts involving violence, intimidation and destruction of property based upon bias and prejudice have become more prevalent in New York state in recent years. (cont.)

The intolerable truth is that in these crimes, commonly and justly referred to as "hate crimes", victims are intentionally selected, in whole or in part, because of their race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, (cont.)

religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation. Hate crimes do more than threaten the safety and welfare of all citizens. They inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional damage and tear at the very fabric of free society. Crimes motivated by (cont.)

invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire communities and vitiate (cont)

the civility that is essential to healthy democratic processes. In a democratic society, citizens cannot be required to approve of the beliefs and practices of others, but must never commit criminal acts on account of them. However, these criminal acts do occur and are (cont.)

occurring more and more frequently. Quite often, these crimes of hate are also acts of terror. The recent attacks in Monsey, New York as well as the shootings in El Paso, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Sutherland Springs, Texas; Orlando, Florida; and (cont.)

Charleston, South Carolina illustrate that mass killings are often apolitical, motivated by the hatred of a specific group coupled with a desire to inflict mass casualties. The current law emphasizes the political motivation of an act over its catastrophic effect and (cont.)

does not adequately recognize the harm to public order and individual safety that hate crimes cause. Therefore, our laws must be strengthened to provide clear recognition of the gravity of hate crimes and the compelling importance of preventing their recurrence."

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force wants you to know as follows: "In accordance with the New York State Penal Law, the New York City Police Department uses the following guideline to identify hate crime and bias incidents: "A bias incident is any offense or unlawful act that (cont.)

is motivated in whole or substantial part by a person's, a group's or a place's identification with a particular race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, ancestry, national origin, or sexual orientation (including gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender)(cont.)

as determined by the commanding officer of the Hate Crime Task Force." Hate crimes may have consequences far beyond the criminal act itself. Becoming the victim of a crime is traumatic, but if the act was committed because of who you are or what you believe, the violation(cont.)

even more hurtful and may cause deep emotional impacts. All hate crimes are serious incidents and are treated as such by the Police Department. Crimes that are motivated by hate are vigorously investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force....(cont.)

Freedom of speech is protected by our Constitution. Everyone has the right to express their likes, dislikes and opinions, no matter how offensive these expressions may be to others. Ultimately, offensive or hateful speech is still just speech and is protected. (cont.)

A hate crime is a criminal act that is motivated in whole or substantial part by the perceived identify of the victim. For example, when a person calls another person an insulting name, it is just a name and not a crime, even if the name is hateful and offensive. (cont.)

This kind of name calling is generally protected as free speech. In contrast, if someone calls a person a hateful name because of their identity alone and also assaults them, the assault is a crime, and the motivation makes the act a hate crime as well. (cont.)

The hate crime designation can also apply to other crimes, such as criminal mischief and graffiti, like painting racial slurs or swastikas on public or private property or the desecration of cemeteries associated with particular religious or racial groups. (cont.)

Free speech protections end with the commission of a criminal act, and hateful speech or writing in conjunction with a crime is a hate crime."

Thus, in New York, there is no value to the distinction that white people are not members of "historically oppressed groups." It does not matter one iota. If you commit a criminal act and it is coupled with speech evincing bias or prejudice against a group based upon (cont.)

race or religion, (to cite just two of the groups protected by New York's hate crimes law), you can be charged with and prosecuted for a hate crime and, upon conviction, be subjected to the enhanced penalties provided for by law. So, if you go to a predominantly white (cont.)

church and spray paint "goyim" or "cracker" on the church doors, you can be prosecuted for graffiti as a hate crime and received enhanced punishment. You can try to argue that "but my ethnic studies professor told us that white people are not an historically oppressed (cont.)

group" and the judge will be bound by the statute to sentence you for a hate crime anyway, because there is no exception under the law for bias and prejudice directed at members of certain races and religions that have not historically experienced oppression. (cont.)

Now I have to add that this notion that white people are not members of an historically oppressed group and THEREFORE cannot be victims of hate speech - or as the subtweet says (paraphrasing) "I am a member of an historically oppressed group so I can call you "cracker" or (cont.)

"goyim" whether you like it or not" - is a fairly new concept that has arisen in academic literature in the past 30 years or so and is not a notion that I was ever raised on. In the 1960s when there was a great deal of racial unrest in this country no one doubted that (cont.)