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March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review May 29, 2007 / 12 Sivan, 5767

Congress enacting thought crimes

By Nat Hentoff


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Early in our Republic, James Madison declared that no American would be punished for his "thoughts." Madison never anticipated Democrat John Conyers, the Michigan congressman who, on a vote of 237 to 180 in the House, has successfully passed his Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. If approved by the Senate, which is likely, the current federal law providing longer sentences for perpetrators of violence on the basis of race, religion, color or national origin will be expanded to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.


There are already 45 state "hate crimes" laws — differing in language and especially in clarity — but now it will be even easier for the federal government to also get involved in state "hate crimes" prosecutions when a state prosecutor is unwilling or unable to act on these charges.


This greater power of the federal government to define which free expression of our "biased" thoughts will lead to heavier criminal sentences may provide more work for the FBI.


I have been writing about — and researching — state "hate crimes" laws for more than a decade and have found proof of what NYU law professor James Jacobs writes in his definitive book, "Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics" (Oxford University Press):


When a prosecutor needs to build a stronger case, "witnesses may be called to testify about how the defendant told or laughed at racist or homophobic jokes, or whether he used racial slurs. In Grimm v. Churchill (1991), the arresting officer was permitted to testify that the defendant in a "bias" assault had a history of making racist remarks.


Similarly, in People v. Lampkin (1983), the prosecutor presented as evidence racist statements that the defendant had uttered six years before the crime for which he was on trial. In effect, a hate-crime trial may become a wide-ranging inquiry into the defendant's character, values and beliefs."


Watch what you say, and try to remember what you have said in the past. Other prosecutorial questions also may include magazines or other publications you read, or even which recordings you listen to.


As Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., a relentless spear header of hate-crimes legislation, persuades his colleagues to enact a statute with the same goal as John Conyers' in the House, I offer to those senators a report by a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney, Migdalia Maldonado, with experience on these cases:


"Given the heightened social awareness of bias crimes and the concomitant special attention that allegations of this sort receive from the enforcement officials and the media, the complainant is keenly aware that if the crime perpetrated against him or her is deemed a bias crime ... the perpetrator will be dealt with more harshly by the courts.


"A complainant, therefore, has an incentive to tailor his or her presentation of facts so as to obtain a bias-crime designation. ... This motive ... leads to a relatively high incidence of false reports."


Enthusiastically supporting the hate-crimes bill that passed the House, The Washington Post, in a careless, "politically correct" editorial, "Protection from Hate," ended its encouragement of the Senate — to follow the House's lead — by using the ever-present mantra of supporters of super punishing odious speech that prosecutors can connect to a crime against certain classes of victims:


"Crimes that target someone because of his or her race or sexual orientation are more than an offense against that individual. They are crimes that terrorize whole communities." But what of the millions of the rest of us who are not members of communities given special guarantees of harsher penalties against their attackers?


Some years ago, a young white woman, I heard during my research, was sexually assaulted and terrorized by a white predator. A friend of hers, another white woman, was also the victim of similar brutality by a black man. The white attacker of the first white woman received a significantly shorter prison sentence than the black attacker of the second woman — his act having been prosecuted and judged a "hate crime."


The first white woman was greatly puzzled. Angrily, she said, "Was what happened to me of less importance to the law then what happened to my friend?"


So much for "equal protection of the laws." If the president signs this addition to federal and state "hate crimes" into law, there will be ever expanding demands by other communities that they too must be included. Would it eventually be a "hate crime," with extra penalties, to assault someone for the category of only being a member of Congress?

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and author of several books, including his current work, "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance". Comment by clicking here.

Nat Hentoff Archives

© 2006, NEA

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