Pass The Ammo

JJ and I were discussing politics, Hillary, hate crimes when the fact came up that hate crimes are thought crimes, and therefore un-constitutional. So I looked around the innernets and found this great article on the subject. The domain was expired, but I pulled this article from a cached page. Good reading.

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
- Thomas Jefferson

A form of tyranny over the mind of man that Thomas Jefferson feared has taken root in America under the guise of the politically correct war on so-called prejudicially motivated acts of violence. In Washington, they call it Hate Crime, what it really is, is Thought Crime.

We all know the story of the dragging death of a black man in Texas, classified and prosecuted under this relatively recent category of crime. The story for public consumption on this concept is that some crimes are motivated purely out of hate for race, religion or national origin, and thus are somehow worse crimes than others that have the same result—although I’ve yet to have someone show me a murder that was committed out of pure love and affection for the victim.

If Moe kills Larry during a fight and Moe calls Larry a black SOB during the murder, somehow that is worse than if Moe kills Curly and says nothing. The fact remains however both Curly and Larry are dead at the hands of Moe. Under the Hate Crime Law, the prosecution of Moe for Larry’s murder can be treated differently and the punishment much more severe than for Curly’s murder. The difference here, according to the federal government, is what was in the mind of Moe when he killed Larry. What Moe was thinking however can only be found within the personal depths of Moe’s mind and nowhere else. Murder is an overt act but hate, by its very nature, stems from thought…an internalized process. What is “hate crime” then if not the ability of the state to determine and then prosecute man based on his thoughts?

The government has determined that people’s thoughts now come under federal jurisdiction and we can be prosecuted more stringently for harboring what the government has determined to be unacceptable thinking while committing a crime. Hate crime is therefore thought crime and the instant we accept this legal premise as valid, we have opened the door to limitless interpretations and applications of that concept. And who determines what hateful thoughts are added to the politically incorrect list—the federal government naturally and under the guise of compassion for minorities and the preservation of law and order!

Hate crime legislation has been cleverly sold to America by employing the time tested method of using a noble label to hide an underlying, more sinister intent. In this case, the ruse of upholding civil rights, punishment of bigotry, and discrimination was the noble banner displayed, but that was the deception designed to get buy-in from main street America in order to justify the existence of a law or any extension of that concept…and therein lies the more sinister intent and ultimate danger–the extension of that concept.

The power to prosecute is the power to control. If the government can prosecute a man differently for his supposed politically incorrect thoughts–incorrect as determined by the government–they have in reality been ascribed the authority and power to regulate and control the free thought of all Americans. In order for the government to prosecute a hate crime, it must first determine a person’s thoughts and have the authority to prosecute differently based on thoughts that have been determined to be offensive. When we can be prosecuted for the nature and content of our minds, we will have lost the liberty that is born of free thought and expression because there is no limitation as to what can be considered unacceptable. The ability to adjudicate and prosecute thought will lead to suppression of all free thought that doesn’t comply with the politically correct as determined by those in power at the time. This then is clearly a form of that tyranny over the mind referenced by Jefferson.

If we roll over and accept this bilge, what is to stop the federal government from expanding and corrupting this further as they do with everything else they get their hands on? Absolutely nothing. Case in point, the overt act of murder is a crime…has been since Cain killed Abel. The criminal aspect was expanded to include conspiracy to commit murder–the process involved in the planning of murder…a thought process. What then prevents the government from taking the next step–passing a law against conspiracy to commit a hate crime? Conspiracy to commit hate possibly defined as hate speech, hate rallies, hate looks, hate insinuations, hate gestures, hate mail, hate pamphlets, hateful political ads and demonstrations using ‘hateful and mean-spirited signs’…such as “Down with Clinton”…definitions will be liberally defined after the conspiracy statutes are on the books–on that, you can bet your last bullet.

What more immediate use of and politically practical reason is there for this push to grant such power to the federal government? Answer: To put down, control and restrict opposing thoughts, ideas and speech under a banner of upholding law and order through the classification of such activity as hate crimes. This then becomes nothing more than a clever way to attack the individuals’ First Amendment right of free speech without ever touching freedom of the press—an action that would be adamantly attacked itself by the press if they hadn’t found a way to selectively circumvent mere portions of the First Amendment. Remember the tactics the Nazis used to deal with expressions of political opposition? It’s the same concept here, just more cleverly implanted this time around.

This is pure incremental tyranny at its worst and to the extreme in its consequence but is exactly where the liberal faction boldly tells us they are going with it. The government has been seeking to expand that power from the very first hate crime law by adding categories to the growing list of those covered under hate crime statutes….

“Last year, President Clinton brought together law enforcement experts, community leaders and hate crime victims to highlight the need for every American to get involved in eradicating the cycle of prejudice and violence…. But we want to do more. The Justice Department has jurisdiction over federal hate crimes based upon race, color, religion and national origin. But the federal hates crime statutes do not permit us to investigate or prosecute most offenses motivated by a victim’s disability, their gender, or their sexual orientation.” - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, January 1998

We already know that conspiracy to commit hate crime is the next step and the follow-on restriction and probable elimination of free thought and its child–free speech…all legally done under the law! It seems a Democrat let the cat out of the bag regarding the true color of the liberal’s methods:

“Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order.”
– John Lindsay

When man loses his freedom of thought, he has no freedom left. The mind of man is the ultimate vestige of independence any government must subvert before it can claim and exercise total control over a nation—and it’s the loss or restriction of free thought that is most dangerous to all freedoms. A former Justice of the Supreme Court warned of this several years ago when he said:

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”
-Justice William O. Douglas

To my way of thinking, this move on the part of the government to push this Hate Crime bilge is nothing but the planting of the seed necessary to expand the concept to a much broader and more sinister level—it’s a crime of historic proportions. The power and desire to prosecute thought is a crime against humanity for it strips mankind of one of the greatest God-given gifts of all…his thoughts and his independent mind. The offense committed by government in exerting jurisdiction over free thinking men through the use of hate crime legislation as its genesis and where that will lead is indeed the tyranny Jefferson spoke of and a much worse transgression against free people everywhere than any individual crime ever committed–regardless of the hate involved.

Just the view from my saddle…

Written by Colonel Dan on 07.07.00
Originally Posted on the Sierra Times (currently defunct)