Crimes are Hate based no matter what.

Article 1 of the 14 th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Under our Constitution, and our Declaration of Independence, it is properly recognized that ALL people are Created Equal, and have Equal protections under our laws.

So, in light of this stated fact from these Founding Documents upon which our laws are based, can anyone explain to me why it is necessary to pass the so called Hate Crimes Bill ( H.R. 1913) which is to be brought before the US House of Representatives?

Many on the left believe such a bill is necessary to protect certain classes of citizens they have been lobbied to believe, which have been victims of crimes based on their life choices, and deserve protection from all crime in the future.

By now, most of you have understood that this bill is to protect gays/lesbians/bisexual and transgendered people from crimes based entirely on their "orientation". I have a few problems with this, which I am sure to be called every name in the book for, but I would like to do this civilly, by showing facts. If anyone has to respond by snide, rude and childish remarks- well, that's your problem.

The latest data I could find for crime stats is from 2007. For that year, the statistics are:

2007
301,621,157 Population
11,251,828 total crimes committed (reported)
1,408,337 Violent crimes
9,843,481 crimes against property
16,929 murders
90,427 rapes
445,125 robbery
855,856 assaults
2,176,140 burglaries
6,568,572 larceny thefts
1,095,769 vehicle thefts

Now, I know this is not scientific and not really correct, because I can't find all the updated data- but it was told by those proposing this bill that the crimes against people in the GLBT community totalled 1,521. I am assuming this involves violent crimes, but it could be a number which combines all types of crime.

My point here being, that although that number is 1521 more crimes than their should be- compared to the total amount of crimes committed in the US, this is an extremely low number. Now- before I get yelled at, what I mean is statistically this is a very small percentage when looking at the overall crime rates of the US. When you consider say, assaults- at 855,856 total, and if there were 1521 assaults against strictly homosexuals- that means, that 854, 335 assaults were committed against the non homosexual population. No matter how the numbers go- the larger percentage of crime is against non homosexual people.

One of my biggest problems with passing a federal hate crimes bill- has nothing to do with my Biblical beliefs. It has everything to do with common sense, and the Constitutional Law. To pass this type of law, for one, would be unconstitutional in that it would nullify the 14th amendment. People in this country are all to be treated equally as we are all endowed by our Creator equally. It would be discriminatory against a huge portion of the American population to be treated differently when being a victim of crime and having justice served. I have a problem when one person who is a victim of any crime is given more legal weight in the court system than someone else who is a victim of a similar crime. For example- I have gay neighbors who live on the next road over from me. My elderly Mother in Law lives next door. Lets say someone breaks into her house and assaults her before robbing her blind. They catch the guy and after the trial- he is given 20 years. End of story. Now, suppose this guy went to my neighbours home instead- but committed the exact same crime- assault and robbery. Now, because my neighbors happen to be homosexuals, they have rights under the federal hate crimes bill. This makes the crime a federal crime now. The State can hand down a 20 year sentence on this creep, but he could also get an extra 20 years for the federal hate crime.

Does that seem fair? I say no. The two men who are my neighbors are decent guys. My mother in law is a good woman. They are all people- and none are any better than the other- yet because of a passed bill, one gets better justice.

Now- the way the law is- everyone gets the same treatment. If a gay murders someone- they deserve and are handed a life sentence. If a straight person murders a gay, they deserve and are handed a life sentence. Plain and simple- equal treatment, and equal protection. Common sense tells us that all crime is hateful. While some crimes are called crimes of passion, there is NO crime which is NOT motivated by a hateful person.

The other problem I have with this bill, does have to do with my Biblical beliefs. There are no provisions anywhere which prevents Pastors, Christian business owners, Christian landlords, Christians charities and churches from being fined, prosecuted and foreclosed upon because of their Religious beliefs against Homosexuality.

Now, I know that many people from the gay community do not appreciate or tolerate those who disagree on Biblical or any other religious beliefs with their life choices. One only has to see the outrageous behavior from some in the homosexual community towards people who hold strong Religious values and convictions. Look at the recent flap during the Miss USA competition. I could site many more instances, but I'm not looking for either side for scoring points on stupidity. My only aim here is to say AGAIN, that most Bible believing Christians have a strong position on all sin, including homosexuality. This is perceived by many on the left and in the gay community to be considered hate speech.

I've seen many things in my life which I would consider hate speech, but you know what? I don't listen to it. If someone gets in my face, I either try and talk sensibly about it, or I walk away. There is no use for name calling and derogatory remarks and actions.

The first Amendment of the Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This hate crimes bill gives no provisions which guarantee that people who disagree with the GLBT life choices their first amendment rights.
No where in any of the Constitution is the right to be offended or the right to special treatment under the law for perceived or supposed wrongs against a person. There is nothing which states a person should be brought before a trial only because of what that person thinks or believes about anyone else.

There is no evidence where someone has been brutally attacked because a Bible believing Christian pastor spoke against homosexual behavior in his pulpit. Likewise, there is no evidence of gross assault of a homosexual because a Christian business person, landlord, charity or church did not hire because of a life choice which is contrary to those Christian's beliefs.

If you don't believe this bill will end up persecuting Christians, one only has to look at similar laws in other countries such as Canada and Sweden and other countries with hate crime laws.

This bill is nothing more than the leftist socialist government to impose more thought and religious restrictions on a large part of the population. This has nothing to do with equal justice- but everything to do with losing more and more of our rights under the Constitution.