WHO'S WARNING ABOUT THE HATE BILL?

By Rev. Ted Pike
 

            The federal "anti-hate" bill, HR 254, is stealth legislation at its most devious. Its language deceives all but the most suspicious and informed. Maybe this helps explain why evangelical watchdog organizations do little or nothing to sound the alarm, even though the hate bill has been in the House of Representatives for six weeks!

            On ten top conservative websites, I found no mention of the David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HR 254). I found just one alert on the citizen link page of Dr. Dobson's Focus on the Family website. When several friends and I called D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries, American Family Association, and Jerry Falwell Ministries, they promised to research the hate bill immediately.

            But this legislation is so disarmingly worded that even Christians and conservatives contact me to ask, "This bill just wants federal power to prosecute bias-motivated violent crimes in the states--what's wrong with that?"

            There's plenty wrong with that!

What's the Threat?

            The Constitution does not grant federal government the police state privilege of intervention in local law enforcement. Unless the government finds evidence of slavery in the states, jury tampering, voter fraud, or crimes involving interstate commerce (where jurisdiction is unclear), the Constitution's message to the federal government is blunt and emphatic: "Butt out of local law enforcement!"

            But HR 254 gives the government the right to do what the Constitution forbids. Because five states do not have hate laws, this bill says the government has no choice but to "enhance federal enforcement of hate crimes" and "increase the number of [federal] personnel to prevent and respond to alleged violations [of hate crimes in the states]" (Introductory Statement of Purpose and Sec. 7). HR 254 asserts hate crimes and lack of effective countermeasures on the state level is a "serious national problem" necessitating federal intervention (Sec. 2[1])

            The hate bill strains to find any pretext whereby a federal hate crimes bureaucracy can take over local law enforcement. Its arguments toward this end are so absurd they insult the reader's intelligence.

Sneaking Around the Constitution

            In order to evade the Constitution's clear limitations on federal intervention in law enforcement, HR 254 alleges that hate crimes are actually slavery! "Violence motivated by bias is a relic of slavery that can constitute badges and incidents of slavery." (Sec. 2, 8)

            HR 254's second absurd ruse is that hate criminals affect interstate commerce, by terrorizing their victims into traveling across state lines - or not. In the latter case such victims may be impeded in purchasing many products imported or exported across state lines, which adversely affects state economies. Also, since weapons of hate violence may have been imported from out of state or traveled across state boundaries, the government is entitled to intervene in "crimes involving interstate commerce."

            Considering the pervasive influence of interstate commerce upon our lives, how often can the government meddle in local hate crimes enforcement? Any time. In fact, this ridiculous argument could be used to justify federal intervention in a crime of any kind, since any crime victim might be scared into different spending or traveling choices.

            Frighteningly, HR 254 says its goal is to "prevent and respond to alleged violations" of federal hate crimes laws. This means the government does not even have to wait until a hate crime has been committed but may act preemptively to "prevent" crime.  

            Further, penalties for violation of federal anti-hate law can be extremely severe, even tripling the normal penalties. ¹ For example, what if a man calls a woman "bitch" (evidence of bias motivation against woman, a federally protected group under HR 254) and attempts to rape her, but fails. If convicted of this assault, he could be sentenced to prison for the rest of his life. (Sec. 4[B][B,ii]).

HR 254 Shatters Civil Rights

            America's justice system requires proof of physical tangible damage before an arrest can be made. Our English system of law evolved over at least 3500 years from both biblical and Roman legal precedent.

            HR 254 is not based on this foundation. It seeks to establish a different "bias motivation" justice system, which will be defined in courts by judges, as has happened in Canada over the past 36 years. Closely advised and pressured by ADL, ² these federal and local (and mostly liberal) judges will establish legal precedents�precedents that protect groups such as homosexuals not only from physical bias-motivated violence but also from "verbal violence." This will include the "hate speech" of Bible-believing evangelical Christians. This is exactly what has occurred in Canada and the many European nations who accepted hate laws' Orwellian chains.

            HR 254 thus does more than violate states' rights in law enforcement. It also leads inexorably to an end of free speech!

We Need You Now

            The powerful Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith is determined to pass the hate bill in their Democrat-controlled Congress. ADL has vowed it will never give up until a federal hate crimes bureaucracy, like it established in Canada, shackles the United States. ADL has weathered six rejections of their hate bill by Congress since 1998. Their tenacity doesn't come from concern for the emotions or safety of homosexuals. ADL is using the powerful homosexual lobby as a tool to pass a law that will ultimately make it a hate crime, punishable by prison or deportation to Israel, to criticize Zionism or matters Jewish. (See, David Irving, like Galileo, Victim of 'Thought Crimes' Inquisition)

            I never thought I would see the day when legislation so enormously destructive to freedom would be virtually unopposed by the religious right. ³ Incredibly, the many thousands of participants with the National Prayer Network (www.truthtellers.org), through massive calling and mailing of my hate crime flyer to Congress, have delivered the primary protest against imminent passage of HR 254. 

            Yet, we desperately need assistance from the vast constituencies of conservative evangelical organizations. These groups claim to protect America and our freedom. Yet they have been virtually oblivious to a very present danger that threatens to wipe away our freedom to fight all other battles. If we allow the hate bill to pass, we will soon have no free speech left with which to protest evils like abortion or the redefinition of marriage. The present silence of Christian/conservative organizations is ensuring their future death.

            National Prayer Network can't win alone. Freedom of speech is America�s lifeblood. It is the precious birthright of all Americans. Many, many more individuals--liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, Christian and non-Christian--must help us save this freedom now.  

 
Endnotes:

¹ This is mandated by ADL's Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
² ADL obtained such a mandate through passage of their Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990. It gave them power to teach U.S. Justice Department, FBI, and local police their twisted definitions of hate crimes and how to report them. It is out of 25 years of such indoctrination that ADL intends to create its national hate laws gestapo and police state.
³ As of Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007, important conservative websites where we could find no mention of the David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act, HR 254, include:

• American Family Association
• Coral Ridge Ministries
• Renew America
• WorldNetDaily
• Jerry Falwell Ministries
• Christian Coalition of America
• Family Research Council
• Gary Bauer's American Values
• Concerned Women for America (which has re-posted an excellent article from 2005 but makes no mention of the current threat in Congress)
• Traditional Values Coalition, while containing nothing about HR 254 on its website, has emailed alerts concerning the bill.

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            HR 254 is presently assigned to the House Judiciary Committee, but as a streamlined version of a bill that previously passed in the House, it could race forward to passage very quickly. Call all 40 members, available at www.truthtellers.org and protest.

            Also call your House member and two state senators at 1-877-851-6437. Send them and their influential legislative aides Rev. Ted Pike's flyer, "Anti-Hate Laws Will Make You a Criminal." All this information is available at www.truthtellers.org.

            TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Pike! Call 503-631-3808.

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NATIONAL PRAYER NETWORK, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015
www.truthtellers.org

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            This is the primary text of HR 254, the David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. This is a much shorter version of S 1145 which failed passage in the Senate last year. ADL, desperate to pass their hate bill, has deleted many items and is concentrating in this new streamlined version on getting what they want most: establishment of a bias-oriented justice system in American and union of federal and local police powers (creating a police state). With this foundation, ADL can then rely on federal and local judges to expand jurisdiction from violent physical crimes to verbal violence against protected groups.

To enhance Federal enforcement of hate crimes, and for other purposes.

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

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A BILL

To enhance Federal enforcement of hate crimes, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007' or `David's Law'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds that--
(1) the incidence of violence motivated by the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability of the victim poses a serious national problem;
 

(2) such violence disrupts the tranquility and safety of communities and is deeply divisive;

(3) existing Federal law is inadequate to address this problem;

(4) such violence affects interstate commerce in many ways, including--

(A) by impeding the movement of members of targeted groups and forcing such members to move across State lines to escape the incidence or risk of such violence; and

(B) by preventing members of targeted groups from purchasing goods and services, obtaining or sustaining employment or participating in other commercial activity;

(5) perpetrators cross State lines to commit such violence;

(6) instrumentalities of interstate commerce are used to facilitate the commission of such violence;

(7) such violence is committed using articles that have traveled in interstate commerce;

(8) violence motivated by bias that is a relic of slavery can constitute badges and incidents of slavery;

(9) although many local jurisdictions have attempted to respond to the challenges posed by such violence, the problem is sufficiently serious, widespread, and interstate in scope to warrant Federal intervention to assist such jurisdictions; and

(10) many States have no laws addressing violence based on the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability, of the victim, while other States have laws that provide only limited protection.

SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF HATE CRIME.

In this Act, the term `hate crime' has the same meaning as in section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (28 U.S.C. 994 note).

SEC. 4. PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN ACTS OF VIOLENCE.

Section 245 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

(1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as subsections (d) and (e), respectively; and

(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following:

`(c)(1) Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person--

`(A) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, or fined in accordance with this title, or both; and

`(B) shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or fined in accordance with this title, or both if--

`(i) death results from the acts committed in violation of this paragraph; or

`(ii) the acts committed in violation of this paragraph include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill.

`(2)(A) Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, in any circumstance described in subparagraph (B), willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability of any person--

`(i) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, or fined in accordance with this title, or both; and

`(ii) shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or fined in accordance with this title, or both, if--

`(I) death results from the acts committed in violation of this paragraph; or

`(II) the acts committed in violation of this paragraph include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill.

`(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the circumstances described in this subparagraph are that--

`(i) in connection with the offense, the defendant or the victim travels in interstate or foreign commerce, uses a facility or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce, or engages in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce; or

`(ii) the offense is in or affects interstate or foreign commerce.'.

SEC. 5. DUTIES OF FEDERAL SENTENCING COMMISSION.

(a) Amendment of Federal Sentencing Guidelines- Pursuant to its authority under section 994 of title 28, United States Code, the United States Sentencing Commission shall study the issue of adult recruitment of juveniles to commit hate crimes and shall, if appropriate, amend the Federal sentencing guidelines to provide sentencing enhancements (in addition to the sentencing enhancement provided for the use of a minor during the commission of an offense) for adult defendants who recruit juveniles to assist in the commission of hate crimes.

(b) Consistency With Other Guidelines- In carrying out this section, the United States Sentencing Commission shall--

(1) ensure that there is reasonable consistency with other Federal sentencing guidelines; and

(2) avoid duplicative punishments for substantially the same offense.

SEC. 6. GRANT PROGRAM.

(a) Authority To Make Grants- The Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Justice shall make grants, in accordance with such regulations as the Attorney General may prescribe, to State and local programs designed to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles.

(b) Authorization of Appropriations- There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.

SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL TO ASSIST STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.

There are authorized to be appropriated to the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice, including the Community Relations Service, for fiscal years 2007, 2008, and 2009 such sums as are necessary to increase the number of personnel to prevent and respond to alleged violations of section 245 of title 18, United States Code (as amended by this Act).