John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY SAMANTHA CRAGGS IN CBC NEWS
“How much hate crime does Canada have? Without a standard definition, no one knows for sure
“Police services across the country have different ideas about what a hate crime is”
I much dislike the expression "hate crime," even though it has gained a place in society. It has definite Orwellian overtones.
There is nothing gained in understanding or indeed justice by labelling certain instances of breaking a law as "hate crimes" and others merely as "crimes."
It really is playing games with language and law in an effort to make a political statement.
And it is necessarily arbitrary.
If you think about the notion for a moment, you'll realize that it is impossible to determine someone's hate unless they either confess it to you or you can read minds.
But even if someone does hate, unless we've started accepting the 1984 concept of "thought crime," it should not be punishable in and of itself.
Otherwise, we’d have to lock up most of the country’s population. The truth is that there are just so many hatreds among our poor species that they would be impossible even to codify. And most hatreds remain hidden, mercifully.
You cannot stop people from having hatreds, but you can punish any acts they generate, and we have an entire body of law assigning punishments for every possible criminal act.
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Response to a comment saying “we should stop importing anti-Semitism”
"Importing anti-Semitism"?
Sorry, but that does sound like serious hidden prejudice right there.
ADDED NOTE: Here was a comment demonstrating the extent and complexity of human hatreds. The writer actually demonstrates his own hate while attempting to speak against what he regards as the hatred of others.
