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Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Bill Shuster voted against H.R. 1592, the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007,”legislation that would federalize thought crime.
“Government has no place getting into the business of social engineering,” Shuster said. “The phrase “Equal Justice Under the Law” isn’t a slogan, it’s the cornerstone of our justice system. This legislation tears down the essential idea that justice is equal for all Americans by injecting political correctness into our legal system.”
Forty-five states already have laws on the books that treat crimes motivated by a victim’s race, religion, or national origin differently than other crime. All states prohibit “willfully causing” bodily injury to a person. However, H.R. 1592 goes much further by federalizing crimes that would otherwise be dealt with at the local level and creating an unequal set of penalties simply based on the kind of category the victim falls into.
“Every crime is a hate crime when you get down to it. We shouldn’t penalize a murderer less because he killed a police officer and more if the victim is a homosexual or of a different religion. Murder is murder and it should be punished harshly and equally across the board.”
“I hope that we might best utilize our current legal system and prosecute all crimes, no matter what the origin, under the same criminal statutes already in effect.” |
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