>This makes me wonder about what exactly it is that the opponents of hate crimes want to be free to do, were their actions not criminalized?
I think that you're confusing the opponents of hate crime laws with the people who commit hate crimes, or else I don't understand who "their" refers to in this sentence. That's a terrifyingly aggressive equivocation when it comes to laws, punishment, and policing.
The defense that hate crime legislation is fine because labor discrimination law is fine is weird. Labor discrimination law is screwed up and unenforceable in the US, because it allows people to be terminated for any reason excepting a few. For example, I can fire you because I don't like your face, but I can't fire you because I don't like your race. IMO it's a way of papering over a complete dysfunction in the balance between the rights of workers and the rights of employers, one that tends not to acknowledge, even theoretically, that workers deserve any rights at all.
This is not an issue with assault or murder. If we have a list of less valid reasons to hurt and kill people than others, we are simultaneously creating a list of more valid reasons to hurt and kill people.
Also, anyone who says that they don't understand how people could criticize hate crime laws as laws criminalizing certain kinds of thoughts, when the only qualifications distinguishing them from other laws are speculations on the mental state of a person committing a different, separately recognized crime, is being disingenuous.
I think that you're confusing the opponents of hate crime laws with the people who commit hate crimes, or else I don't understand who "their" refers to in this sentence. That's a terrifyingly aggressive equivocation when it comes to laws, punishment, and policing.
The defense that hate crime legislation is fine because labor discrimination law is fine is weird. Labor discrimination law is screwed up and unenforceable in the US, because it allows people to be terminated for any reason excepting a few. For example, I can fire you because I don't like your face, but I can't fire you because I don't like your race. IMO it's a way of papering over a complete dysfunction in the balance between the rights of workers and the rights of employers, one that tends not to acknowledge, even theoretically, that workers deserve any rights at all.
This is not an issue with assault or murder. If we have a list of less valid reasons to hurt and kill people than others, we are simultaneously creating a list of more valid reasons to hurt and kill people.
Also, anyone who says that they don't understand how people could criticize hate crime laws as laws criminalizing certain kinds of thoughts, when the only qualifications distinguishing them from other laws are speculations on the mental state of a person committing a different, separately recognized crime, is being disingenuous.