In a far-flung republic composed of various subgroups, multiple viewpoints and interests are bound to proliferate. You can believe whatever you want, however politically incorrect-especially since today’s political correctness may be deemed tyranny in retrospect. Repeatedly insisted, you have freedom of conscience. First, do you have the faculty of reason that allows you to distinguish right from wrong? Second, did you intend to do the crime you committed? Beyond that, as Properly, the law should ask only two questions about your state of mind. Here we are but a step away from the “thoughtcrime” All this is as American as apple pie, if less appetizing.ĭesignating an offense as a hate crime criminalizes not the action but the idea that supposedly impelled it. Is similarly free to give the finger to Mr. Is entirely at liberty to explain away support for Israel as being “all about the Benjamins, baby.” Supporters as a “deplorables” who are “irredeemable” and “not America.” Nor did the guardians of correct opinion blanch whenĭisparaged a large number of Americans as troglodytes clinging to their guns and religion. It’s odious and moronic to deny the Holocaust, but it isn’t-and shouldn’t be-a crime. The idea that free speech means free speech is a jewel of American exceptionalism. Unlike Canada, Europe and American colleges, the U.S. Calling the cops “pigs” or singing “F- da Police”? Also no problem, legally speaking. The First Amendment allows you to register disapproval of the government in whatever expressive way you choose, though watch out for the arson laws. Burning an American flag, the Supreme Court says, is free speech. The absurdity of the sentence points up the larger absurdity of hate crimes as a class of criminal offense.
MAN GETS 16 YEARS FOR BURNING GAY FLAG PLUS
Martinez’s strike three, inflating his five-year maximum to 15, plus an extra year for the reckless use of fire. So what seemed on its face to be a minor infraction suddenly became Mr.
MAN GETS 16 YEARS FOR BURNING GAY FLAG TV
Martinez complicated his own defense by telling a local TV station that he had torched the flag because he didn’t like gay people and had “burned down their pride, plain and simple.” In response, the judge increased the misdemeanor arson charge to a hate-crime charge-a felony, normally carrying a maximum of five years in prison. Martinez of three misdemeanors-third-degree arson, for which the maximum penalty is two years in prison, along with third-degree harassment and the reckless use of fire, each subject to a maximum one-year term. He had two felony convictions, and Iowa law deems any three-time felon an “habitual offender,” subject to enhanced sentencing. Martinez, 30, has a long criminal history, which partly explains the long sentence.