May 7, 2009

• Hate Crimes and Pedophilia

  A bill to prevent Hate Crimes called The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act recently passed the House and has been introduced in the Senate. Perhaps not surprisingly it is now under a sustained attack from the Right.

  Are there legitimate grounds on which to oppose this bill? Undoubtedly there are. No bill is perfect. The problem is the main criticism of the Hate Crimes bill being circulated isn’t a legitimate grounds for criticism at all. It isn’t even close.

  You see what we are hearing is that supports of the unmodified Hate Crimes bill are “defenders of pedophiles”.  Huh? If you’re at all like me that was your first reaction. So you had to go look up the justification. No one sane or at all interested in truth would accept such an extreme claim on face value.

  Well something sort of resembling a justification does exist, it’s just based on a clear falsehood. The Hate Crimes bill deals with establishing clear criminal standards and punishments to individuals that perpetrate crimes motivated by “race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim”.  It also provides funding for states to help with prosecuting the criminals, investigating the crimes, and supporting the victims.  Sounds good right? Well here’s the supposed problem. According to the critics, the fact that the bill mentions “sexual orientation” or “disability” somehow implies that the provisions of the bill ALSO apply to pedophiles. That’s the criticism.

  Now the right answer to this critique is very simple. You say, “No it doesn’t you bonehead!” And you’re right. “sexual orientation” is not pedophilia according to the legal definition. It applies only to heterosexuality and homosexuality. And the ADA defines the term disability in such a way as to explicitly exclude pedophilia.

  But to borrow the words of Colin Powell, “the really right answer” to this critique is so what.  Implicit in the horrified statement of OMG this law “protects” pedophiles is the idea that pedophiles don’t deserve any form of protection whatsoever whether or not they’ve been convicted of a crime. That means if a regular citizen, perhaps you, perhaps me, were simply accused of pedophilia or somehow framed for it, and a mob set upon that citizen, kidnapped them, beat them, tortured them, sexually abused them, and murdered them that mob should apparently just be let go. Off the hook. No problem. Obviously they didn’t do anything wrong. I mean they thought it was a dirty rotten  pedophile right? Such a person deserves what they get. That’s what these pundits seem to be saying.

  Further an obvious extension to this would implicate a similar “OK” aspect to other critiques motivated by ANY characteristic we as a people don’t like.  Why not make it OK to violently persecute people with blond hair? Or why not short people? How about liberals? Or conservatives? How about people who dress funny? Or people who smell funny? People who spend all their time writing on their Xanga. Or all those Myspace clowns. Why not take out wasteful people? Or lazy people? Why not military veterans? Why not illegal aliens? Or single mothers? Why not people who look at me funny? Surely we can all see that they deserve to be punished!

  Don’t you see? THIS IS THE REASON THAT A HATE CRIME BILL NEEDS TO EXISTS!!

  A pedophile is a person who is attracted to children. As far as I know we don’t know why such persons exist or what causes it. It’s still being studied intensely. Is it a disability, a disorder, or an orientation? Who can say? However we DO know it exists and we do know that society frowns upon it. As a society we rightly punish severely people who engage in sexual acts with children. Somewhat more controversially we also severely punish anyone who is caught with possession of child related pornography. Whatever you think about the strictness of these laws, it is surely at least in general in accordance with the values of the majority of the people right now. So then if we do punish people who do these things, why on earth would we ALSO need to allow vigilantism against these people over and above the rule of law?

  Being a pedophile does not all of a sudden turn someone into an inhuman monster. It doesn’t make them beyond redemption. It doesn’t mean we can treat them like an animal or a rock. They are still human beings and they’re still citizens. And they’re still entitled to precisely the same rights and protections under the law as anyone and everyone else is. Just as any American citizen who commits a crime is still entitled to those rights and protections and will likewise be equally fairly subjected to the same standards of Justice to which we all must adhere.  Just as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or religious principle don’t transform a person into some special class entity whereby they can all of a sudden be shat on by anyone and everyone without recourse, so too does pedophilia or the existence of any other mental orientation not immediately imply that a person ought to be abandoned by the society altogether. Any system that does, is not Just.

  Yes, I do think if a pedophile is beaten or murdered simple because he or she is a pedophile, the perpetrators of that crime should be punished in accordance with the full force of all applicable laws. Is it so bad if those people are also punished for being perpetrators of a Hate Crime in addition to whatever other legal punishment they are entitled to? That to me would be a large incentive to NOT take the law into your own for any group you happen to think for whatever reason deserves it.

  It’s for law enforcement and the Justice Department to punish criminals in a consistent and fair way in accordance with our laws. Anything less is a perversion of justice.

  It’s true that currently pedophiles don’t fall under the current hate crime laws. And no matter what the pundits say, this new law won’t change that. But maybe one day they will. Either under this law or under some other yet to be written law. Is that really so wrong? I believe that nobody should persecute another person under the motivation that the person is different or doesn’t meet their ideals. Our laws should in part discourage that kind of selfish bigotry and persecution whenever and wherever it arises. And in so doing the law will help to keep us ALL safe. Pedophiles and non-pedophiles alike.

  • 3:39 pm
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