The South Carolina House of Representatives passed the “Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act”. The summation of this act is described like this:
After reading this summation and the bill, I have a straightforward question, “If a crime is not a hate crime, is it a love crime?”
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an antonym of hate is love. So if the state senate passes this act and the governor signs it into law, logic dictates that we must redefine our current definition of crimes.
If you murder a person but do not intentionally select the victim passed on a pre-defined basis, it would be a “Love murder.” Yes, judge, I did murder that person, but I did it out of love. Sounds stupid. But when you allow logical thought to enter the discussion, that is the only conclusion you can obtain.
A better way of looking at laws would be to remove all outside considerations from the equation. If you kill anyone, it is because you hate them. Why else would you kill them? If you beat a person, it is plain and simple because you hate that person. The same applies to all crimes involving direct interaction with another person. You don’t commit a crime against an individual for any reason other than that you hate them.
The only reason I can see for a law like this is to create another different class of crimes that will not be based on previous judicial interpretation but instead on a biased influencer. They could come out and say that it is a hate crime to call a person something other than the supposed gender they say they identify as. It could also be used to call it a hate crime if you oppose the viewpoints of others, such as being a “climate change denier,” a hate crime against society in the minds of many misguided souls. Or how about being labeled a person who has committed a hate crime by attacking a political opponent in a manner that the majority of politicians attest to as hate speech?
I believed that the Republican-controlled South Carolina House of Representatives was above this kind of nonsense. When Dylann Roof killed those black churchgoers, no one had to be told it was a heinous crime, a crime against all Americans. All law-abiding citizens in America, in general and South Carolina in particular, have been repulsed by the Pulse Nightclub Shootings, the Tree of Life Synagogue Shootings, or the actions of Justin Tyran Roberts.
The whole idea that somehow a crime is more heinous when you attach an adjective to it, in this case, the word hate makes something worse, is outright stupid. All crimes are against people and done for a simple reason: the victim means nothing to the perpetrator. All these crimes are hate crimes, and all of these crimes must be prosecuted without any additional considerations. Further, this act can be distorted in ways by those who wish to impose their need to control the free thoughts of others. Free speech can, and I feel will be, criminalized in many cases by the new “thought police.” Enough is enough; we don’t need contemptible laws like this.