Maryland may become the first state to make targeting homeless persons for violence into a hate crime
under a bill headed to Gov. Martin O'Malley's (D) desk. The fun part? The clause was added by Republican who was seeking to demonstrate that the whole idea of hate crimes laws is absurd.
Civil Rights Act of 1964's provisions prohibiting sex discrimination: take 2.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good parallel because like the MD legislator who has come to care about homeless people a little and reap some political alliances from helping them, Howard W. Smith actually did care about protecting (white) women.
Bit of a modification is necessary on that, David: "the clause was originally added by a Republican who was seeking to demonstrate that the whole idea of hate crimes laws is absurd."
ReplyDeleteAccording to an interview I came across via Shakesville (and presuming of course that he was telling the truth), his reasoning for supporting the clauses changed after seeing a video of a homeless man being beat to death. He then went from introducing the clause as a joke to being (so he says) serious about it.
Not *that* much better, but a reasonable improvement, to be sure.