OPINION:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Congress is poised to spend our tax money on some new hate-crimes legislation, as if Congress does not have enough other stuff to do. I cannot think of one subject of so-called hate-crimes legislation for which there are not already adequate laws on the books. If you are heterosexual and I assault you, I have committed assault. If you are homosexual and I assault you, I still have committed assault. If I am white and you are white, and I murder you, I have committed murder. If I am white and you are black, and I murder you, I still have committed murder.
In most, if not all, capital crimes, it must be proved that one had the intent to commit the crime, but the why of that intent does not have to be proved. The why is - as you sometimes hear lawyers say - irrelevant and immaterial. The intent, not the rationale behind it, is what is important. Morality cannot be legislated, and that’s exactly what hate-crimes legislation attempts to do.
CHUCK FOWLER
Lorton
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