Political Correctness and Hate Crimes

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Politically Incorrect = Hate Crime?

Will American "Thought Police" come after Bible believers?

By Ken Raggio

From "Politically Incorrect" to Incarceration?

David Howard, an aide to the District of Columbia's Mayor Anthony Williams, resigned his job as a result of controversy over his use of the word "niggardly" in a financial report.

The Mayor and a large number of local citizens criticized his use of the word as a racial slur. However, Webster’s 10th Edition Dictionary defines niggardly as "grudgingly mean about spending or granting". Niggardly implies miserliness or stinginess – nothing racial whatsoever.

But in a society that is increasingly paranoid about "political correctness", one must be extremely careful or there may be tragic consequences.

"Politically Correct" is a catch phrase for modern protocol. From the Beltway in D.C. to Ivy League halls and corporate boardrooms, every citizen is now facing monumental pressures to adhere to strict, albeit unwritten guidelines in public and sometimes private conversation.

Innocuous as it may sound, these social trends which force people to speak within certain guidelines forebodes an ominous development – an evolution toward "thought police", similar to the Gestapo and Gulag days from early in the 20th Century.

Imprisoned for Criticizing the Government?

Famous Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested in 1945 for writing a letter in which he criticized Joseph Stalin. He spent eight years in prisons and labor camps, after which he spent three more years in enforced exile. He was "rehabilitated" in 1956, but has spent the rest of his life exposing the horrors of a system where millions of people were enslaved or killed for little more than being politically incorrect.

Andrei Sakharov denounced the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979. Within days, the Kremlin responded by banishing him to Gorky, 250 miles east of Moscow. He was never charged, tried before a court of law, or convicted. His exile continued for six years. His crime – he was politically incorrect!

The most controversial aspect of "political correctness" is that it countermands freedom of speech.

Few people truly realize that right here in the United States of America, our freedoms of speech and thought are being radically infringed upon.

Imprisoned for hating someone

In Canada, a person may already be sentenced to a 5-year prison term for merely "speaking words that incite to hate." On March 27, 1996, Winnipeg police arrested a 17-year-old Canadian teenager for sending the following e-mail message to a local political activist: "Death to homosexuals; It's prescribed in the Bible! Better watch out next Gay Pride Week!!!" It was the first time in North America that police charged an Internet user with committing a hate crime over the Net.

Section 318 of Canada’s Criminal Code makes it a crime to "advocate genocide". The term "genocide" was coined in 1944, referring to Nazi Germany’s attempt to destroy European Jewry. Genocide may be defined in some cases as "Causing physical harm or mental harm to a minority."

"Advocating" genocide, or "causing mental harm" are issues that makes the subject of hate crimes extremely controversial. Any time a court of law is empowered to condemn a man for what he advocates, or what he thinks mentally, we will have entered into a world of thought police.

How far are we from such a world?

Canada’s "Public Incitement of Hatred" Law, [Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code] makes it a crime to "publicly incite hatred".

319. (1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of (a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

("Communicating" in this context includes communicating by telephone, broadcasting or other audible or visible means; "statements" in this context includes words spoken or written or recorded electronically or electro-magnetically or otherwise, and gestures, signs or other visible representations.)

Citizens of Canada are ALREADY being incarcerated for SAYING things that are "politically incorrect"! In addition, "hate crimes" have been narrowed down to "inciting hate" - so if you make someone hate someone else, you may find yourself in jail. (Please note: we cannot approve of hate, or hate crimes, but neither can we approve of a loss of our freedom of speech.)

Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old homosexual who was beat to death by those who hated his homosexuality. LAMBDA, a homosexual activist organization, noted that "the fatal beating of 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1998, apparently motivated at least in part by his homosexuality, has renewed the debate over hate crime legislation. The murder prompted calls from gay activists, editorial pages, and public officials, including Attorney General Janet Reno and President Clinton, for passage of the 1998 Federal Hate Crimes Protection Act."

Clinton's Hate Crime Legislation

Some states now have varying versions of Hate Crime legislation. Not all states designate particular prejudices such as racial, ethnic, sexual and religious hatred and violence as criminal.

Clinton’s Federal bill would preempt all states' legislation. It will allow federal prosecution of crimes motivated by hatred based on gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Though it did not pass when it was first introduced in November 1998, it was reintroduced in 1999, but not passed.

As of 2007, similar legislature is expected to pass both the House and the Senate. Gay Congressman Barney Frank presided over the 237-180 vote in the House. President Bush indicated he may veto the bill if it passes both chambers.

What is a Hate Crime?

Congress defines hate crime as " a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person." (Section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 [28 U.S.C. 994 note].

In short, the sentence for a crime may be increased if it can be shown that HATE against any of a particular list of minorities was a factor. (Example, a 20-year sentence might become a 40 year sentence.)

According to the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division of the FBI, there were only about 7,947 hate crime incidents reported in the year 1995. Sixty-one percent of the incidents were motivated by racial bias; 16 percent by religious bias; 13 percent by sexual-orientation bias; and 10 percent by ethnicity/national origin bias.

For a relatively small number of specified crimes, America stands to lose its freedom of speech and freedom of religion if legislation of this kind continues to put the squeeze on American's thoughts and speech.

Arnold Aronson, President of the Leadership Conference Education Fund, an organization that fights against hate crimes, says, "In troubled places such as the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, and Burundi, we are witnessing once again the age-old tragedy of people committing horrific acts of violence against each other because they refuse to look beyond their differences to respect each other's inherent human dignity."

Hate crimes are not only happening in third-world countries. The United States is witnessing an escalating occurrence of these kind. The April massacre of high school students in Colorado was committed by young men known to have racial, ethnic and sexual prejudices.

The Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Alabama breaks down a menagerie of hate groups into the following categories: Klan, Neo-Nazi, Skinhead, Christian Identity, Black Separatist and Other. Anyone who exhibits prejudices of any kind against any one of a variety of groups might be perceived as a potential or actual perpetrator of a hate crime.

One of the first Federal laws was "The Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990", signed into law by President George HW Bush on April 23, 1990. It required the Justice Department to gather and publish statistics on crimes (including murder, rape, assault and arson) motivated by racial, ethnic, religious or sexual prejudices. The attorney general was made responsible for defining whether a crime contained elements of prejudice.

Then Congress authorized the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1992 to combat hate crimes committed by youths and to reduce prejudice based on race and religion. The Act requires juvenile delinquency programs in every state to address hate crimes.

The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act, passed in 1994, included as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, increased sentencing for a crime by one-third if it is proven to have been a hate crime.

In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law (PL 104-155) the Church Arson Prevention Act. This law increases prison sentences from 10 to 20 years for those who intentionally vandalize religious property because of race, color, or ethnicity.

What comes next?

As the New World Order rapidly deploys all its dictatorial tactics including dissolving national sovereignties, controlling nation’s armies, prosecuting world citizens in its newly formed World Court, and countless other "Big Brother" agendas, we can expect to see the clamps tighten on everything we SAY, THINK and DO.

One of the New World Order’s preeminent spokesmen, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, has said in his book, PERESTROIKA, (Hardback edition, pg. 231), under 19 points toward International Peace and Security, "We must extirpate all genocide, apartheid and religious exclusiveness".

Extirpate Religious Exclusiveness?

Extirpate means, "to pull up by the roots; to destroy totally; exterminate, abolish". Gorbachev’s statement must be taken to mean that as the New World Order finally accomplishes its "Great Plan", anyone who is prejudiced in any way must be exterminated. That not only includes those who are guilty of racial or sexual or ethnic prejudice, but also those who are religiously exclusive.

Unless I am having a serious brain malfunction here, I think that if anyone feels they need to "extirpate" me because I am a fundamentalist Christian, THEY are prejudiced, and guilty of genocide, apartheid, religious exclusiveness and hate crimes.

Religious Exclusivisity - Crime of the Church

If a Judeo-Christian Bible believer declares that homosexuality is a sin, he or she becomes the perpetrator of a crime under hate crime legislation. Those who commit this crime may be incarcerated and charged exorbitant fines.

Even worse, we may find that it is a Federal (or International) Crime to teach that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, or that any false religion will be condemned to hell.

It is time for Christians to intercede both in prayer and in urging their respective governmental officials to not only DELAY the implementation of any further legislation of this kind, but to effectively put a stop to any and all of Big Brother's intention to take away our God-given privilege to think and speak what we believe in our hearts.

If a murder or other crime is committed, let the sentence be handed down - but leave our thoughts and speech alone.

If we don't turn the tide?

Revelation 13:15 says, "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."

This verse prophesies a world of controlled thoughts and beliefs. Our world government will attempt to force us to take a Mark and cause us to worship in a system, even if it is against our beliefs. If we think to do otherwise, we will be under the penalty of death. We will have completely lost our freedoms of speech and religion.

Let us not take part in the creation of that system.

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Ken Raggio

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