In my e-mail inbox, I have a petition that my sister sent me, in favor of strengthening US "hate crimes" laws to apply to crimes against gays and lesbians. (BTW, she's a lesbian.) I'm in a quandary. This is not because I'm against gay and lesbian rights (quite the contrary). Rather, the problem is that I have a visceral reaction against the idea of "hate crimes" legislation. The problem with hate crime legislation for me is that it puts much too much stress on people's intentions. Too much of this gets into thought control. And prosecutors are already too strong in the US, as Alex Cockburn's column in today's L.A. TIMES reminds us. And what about hate crimes by the police themselves? It seems to me that what we need is stronger laws against _torture_. I think that this would catch almost all of the hate crimes, like that against Matthew Shepard. It also could be used against the prosecutors and police some times. I think it also allows us to have simpler laws and simpler law enforcement, since it's much easier to pin down torture than hate. (Many of the haters have great facades.) any thoughts? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
