Discrimination isn’t crime; don’t punish it
William N. Grigg
Friday, December 6, 2013
Discrimination is not a crime, but punishing it certainly is. A crime is an act of aggression against the person or property of another human being. This doesn’t occur when someone a landlord, a restaurant owner, a potential employer declines to take part in a business transaction with another individual for any reason.
People should be free to make such choices even when they are rooted in what others might consider irrational prejudice, and those who disapprove are free to criticize those choices. Critics are also free to capitalize on those choices in the marketplace -- for example, by serving customers whose patronage was rejected elsewhere. However, critics are not morally entitled to use the power of government to punish economic choices they consider offensive or hurtful.
To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, let my neighbor believe what he will about race, sex, or “sexual orientation,” as long as he’s not picking my pocket or breaking my leg. Government is an enterprise purely devoted to pocket-picking and leg-breaking, which is why we must limit government (assuming we permit its continued existence) exclusively to the protection of property rights. This can’t be done if we seek to enlist government in the effort to tutor those whose attitudes we find offensive.
This is why rather than “adding the words” to the Idaho Human Rights Act, we should repeal that act and focus our efforts on building a society that respects and practices the non-aggression principle.
http://www.idahopress.com/members/discrimination-isn-t-crime-don-t-punish-it/article_b6b6dcb2-5e15-11e3-9795-001a4bcf887a.html --
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