Hate-crime bills cause cancer?

It wouldn’t surprise me if folks like the Traditional Values Coaltion make that claim about HR 1592, a federal hate crimes bill, as has falsely been claimed about abortion.

Given that they are claiming pastors can be arrested if they preach against homosexuality and a church member of theirs commits a homosexual-based hate crime, who knows what will come next?

Facts:
• Speech can’t be prosecuted like that, whether for hate crimes or other causes, unless it contains an actual incitement to act.
• The only way it could so be criminalized would be if the TVC’s quasi-divinized President Bush got his way with enough “anti-terror” legislation that its provisions got extended to hate crimes prosecutions. (Of course, the “hoist by one’s own petard” scenario would almost make that worth it.)

Support Texas HB 2612 — Texas needs to do a study of its hate-crimes law to put teeth into it

From an e-mail sent to me:

Testimony on House Bill 2612 was taken in support of a study of the James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act before the House Criminal Procedure Subcommittee on April 2. HB 2612, filed by Representative Marc Veasey, (D - Fort Worth), would provide much needed data to evaluate whether the provisions of the James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act
are being enforced. HB 2612 calls for identifying successful strategies to overcome barriers to the prosecution of hate crimes, such as: lack of training, lack of knowledge about the provisions of the law, and reluctance to prosecute a hate crime based on the jury’s own bias and prejudice.

This last clause is important. (Emphasis added.) Given that Denton’s only gay bar apparently got torched just two weeks after an acquittal on a gay assault case, illustrates the need for getting prosecutors to take hate crimes of all types more seriously.