Hate-crime laws are always troubling as a matter of principle, since they attempt to punish criminals for their motivation, rather than targeting their behavior alone. Federal hate-crimes laws also duplicate existing state and local laws - Colorado has its own statute - and so have even less reason to exist.
That's why we hope President Bush sticks to his pledge to veto hate-crimes legislation that passed the House the other day, and which adds several categories, including gender, sexual orientation and disabilities, to those covered by current federal law.
Hatred and bigotry are reprehensible. But they aren't crimes in themselves. And the books are now filled with statutes that punish individuals for behavior that injures other people or damages property. Enhancing those penalties because the perpetrator may be a bigot is an affront to our legal traditions of equal protection under the law.
The current bill, H.R. 1592, would be objectionable enough if it merely expanded the classifications. But it would also stretch the federal criminal code into areas that should be under state and local control. It would allow the U.S. attorney general to deem any crime believed to be motivated by bias against a protected group a federal offense.
H.R. 1592 would also both authorize up to $5 million a year in grants to help prosecute hate crimes and offer additional money to states and localities that add new cops and prosecutors to pursue these offenders. Cities and counties that want to beef up their police forces would have a tough time rejecting these overtures.
The initial hate-crime laws have been on the books for more than a decade. Only seven states haven't passed them. And still there's no real evidence that these statutes reduce the incidence of crime motivated by bias. We hope the Senate defeats the measure . . . and if it doesn't, that Bush exercises his veto.
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