Sister Joan Chittister famously said, "We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again." Reflecting on that journey -- a blog at a time -- is the focus of this site.
My sympathies to Ms. Shepard, but her argument makes no sense. The men who killed her son are both in prison, and from what I've read they are there for the rest of their lives. I don't see how a federal hate crime bill would have prevented the heinous acts against her son or any of the people she mentions in her clip or in some way helped the prosecution of those crimes.
The bill in question is offically the "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act" and adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the The 1969 federal hate-crime law -- which currently extends only to crimes motivated by actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin.
What Hate Crimes legislation does is provide federal resources to local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute heinous crimes such as the one that took Judy Shepard's son from her.
According to FBI statistics, of the over 113,000 hate crimes since 1991, 55% were motivated by racial bias, 17% by religious bias, 14% sexual orientation bias, 14% ethnicity bias, and 1% disability bias.
The current bill makes it explicit that the law should not be interpreted to restrict people's freedom of speech or association.
It deserves our support and I hope you'll call your representative and urge a yes vote when it comes to the floor.
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My sympathies to Ms. Shepard, but her argument makes no sense. The men who killed her son are both in prison, and from what I've read they are there for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how a federal hate crime bill would have prevented the heinous acts against her son or any of the people she mentions in her clip or in some way helped the prosecution of those crimes.
The bill in question is offically the "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act" and adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the The 1969 federal hate-crime law -- which currently extends only to crimes motivated by actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin.
ReplyDeleteWhat Hate Crimes legislation does is provide federal resources to local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute heinous crimes such as the one that took Judy Shepard's son from her.
According to FBI statistics, of the over 113,000 hate crimes since 1991, 55% were motivated by racial bias, 17% by religious bias, 14% sexual orientation bias, 14% ethnicity bias, and 1% disability bias.
The current bill makes it explicit that the law should not be interpreted to restrict people's freedom of speech or association.
It deserves our support and I hope you'll call your representative and urge a yes vote when it comes to the floor.