Re: Alleged Wyoming hate crime

[curley@CYPHER.TURBONET.COM]

Yes, I think most of us would say that Civil Rights legislation 
of the '60s  made a significant difference in the opportunity 
for members of minority groups to participate in many of the 
social and economic and personal benefits to which they had been 
previously denied.  Unfortunately it did not necessarily change 
the hatred or vile conduct.  
I understand the issues that prompted Mr. Probasco's question to be 
(a) how making it a "hate crime" to commit an act that is already a 
"crime" will more likely deter the conduct or increase enforcement, 
and (b) whether federal involvement makes more sense than 
encouraging or demanding individual state legislation--assuming that 
additional legislation makes sense.  There have been instances of 
hate crime legislation being written such that conduct that none of 
us reasonably wants to be forbidden, ie. criminalized, has not only 
been within the ambit of the statute, but was also enforced at the 
insistence of some allegedly aggrieved party.  
None of those observations is to say hate crime legislation is 
inappropriate.  It does suggest that Mr. Probasco's question might 
deserve further analysis and discussion.

Mike Curley

 Date:          Wed, 14 
Oct 1998 11:48:17 -0700 To:            vision2020@moscow.com From:    
      Robert Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com> Subject:       Re: 
Alleged Wyoming hate crime

At 11:11 AM 10/14/98 -0700, you wrote:
>While I deplore the sorry event in Wyoming, I do not perceive how
>including the federal government would have changed anything.  
>
>Wyoming already has laws against assault and battery (and murder).  What
>difference would another layer of legislation have provided?
>	Bob Probasco
>
>
>On Wed, 14 Oct 1998, Scott Dredge wrote:
>> I believe that we should enact federal legislation to uniformly enforce
>> punishment across the nation in cases involving hate crimes.

What difference did Civil Rights Legislation of the 1960's make?
Robert Hoffmann                      115 N. Jackson St., Suite D
Alt-Escape Adventures                Moscow, ID  83843  USA
http://www.alt-escape.com            Phone: (208) 883-0642
	             Fax:   (208) 883-8545

Mike Curley
reply to: curley@turbonet.com
208-882-3536