HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Friday, October 16, 1998
1998 Ron Paul 122:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I commend to my
colleagues in Congress as well as citizens everywhere
an article authored by Richard Sincere,
Jr., President of Gays and Lesbians for
Individual Liberty. Mr. Sincere aptly describes
how the very essence of hate crimes undermines
a pillar of a free and just society; that
is, equal treatment under the law irrespective
of which particular group or groups with whom
an individual associates. Ours is a republic
based upon the rights of the individual.
[From the Houston Chronicle, Oct. 14, 1998]
GAY STUDENT’S MURDER IS NO REASON TO
MAKE BAD LAW
(By Richard E. Sincere, Jr.)
The wicked murder of Matthew Shepard by
two thugs, assisted by two equally contemptible
accomplices, has resurrected a debate
about the need for hate-crime laws.
1998 Ron Paul 122:3
Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming
student who had been widely praised
for his talents, ambitions and personality,
last week was beaten senseless and left for
dead, tied up like a scarecrow along a fence
on a little-traveled country road. Miraculously,
he was found by passers-by many
hours after the attack, still struggling for
life when he was rushed to a hospital in Fort
Collins, CO, where he died Monday while on
life support.
1998 Ron Paul 122:4
Local law enforcement officials in Laramie,
WY, where the crime took place, quickly
arrested the alleged perpetrators — two
men who performed the assault and two
women who helped them hide their deed —
and it looks like they will be punished to the
full extent the law allows if they are convicted.
1998 Ron Paul 122:5
With Shepard’s death, they face a
possible death sentence.
1998 Ron Paul 122:6
Laramie, a university community of 27,000
people, is feeling both shame and outrage, a
sentiment shared by all right-minded people
throughout the country, indeed around the
world. News of this brutal assault has appeared
everywhere in print and broadcast
media.
1998 Ron Paul 122:7
The crime against Shepard has renewed
calls for passing hate-crime legislation, both
in Wyoming and nationwide. Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer and President Bill Clinton
have said that this attack shows the need for
such laws.
1998 Ron Paul 122:8
This would be a mistake. It would be a
mistake because hate-crime laws, however
well intentioned, are feel-good laws whose
primary result is thought control, violating
our constitutional guarantees of freedom of
speech and of conscience. It would be a mistake
because it suggests that crimes against
some people are worse than crimes against
others. And it would be a mistake because it
uses a personal tragedy, deeply felt by
Shepard’s family and friends, to advance a
political agenda.
1998 Ron Paul 122:9
Hunter College Professor Wayne Dynes,
editor of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality,
notes that hate-crime laws, if they are to be
applied in a constitutional manner, must be
content-neutral. He notes this example:
“Countless numbers of people, aware of the
unspeakable atrocities under his leadership,
hated Pol Pot. This hate was surely well
warranted. If one of the Pol Pot haters had
killed him, would this be a hate crime? Why
not?”
Dynes adds: “In seeking to exculpate the
killer, we would get into the question of
whether some hate is ‘justified’ and some is
not.” He concludes that hate-crime prosecutions
“will be used to sanction certain belief
systems — systems which the enforcer would
like, in some Orwellian fashion, to make unthinkable. This is not a proper use of law.”
Under our system of justice, everyone is
equal before the law. Those accused of
crimes are entitled to certain constitutional
protection, which we must cherish, and the
victims of a crime — whether a Bill Gates or
the poorest street-sweeper in a slum — are entitled
to the same respect. (In the Middle
Ages, the law required a greater punishment
for killing a rich man or noble than it did for
killing a peasant or a laborer. Our law recognizes
no such distinctions.)
So, too, with class- or group-based distinctions. Is it worse to kill a man because he is
foreign-born than it is to kill him to steal
his car? Is it worse to kill a woman because
she is black than because she cut you off in
traffic? Is it worse to beat up a fat sissy boy
if the bullies think their victim is gay, or if
they dislike him because he is fat? Crime is
crime; assault is assault. All deserve punishment.
1998 Ron Paul 122:10
Hateful thoughts may be disagreeable, but
they are not crimes in themselves. The
crimes that result from hateful thoughts —
whether vandalism, assault or murder — are
already punishable by existing statutes.
1998 Ron Paul 122:11
In a speech at the University of Texas last
year, libertarian activist Gene Cisewski said:
“We should be anti-violence, period. Any act
of violence has to be punished swiftly and severely
and it shouldn’t matter who the victim
is. The initiation of force is wrong and it
doesn’t matter why — the mere fact you had a
motive is enough.”
Cisewski acknowledged the good intentions
of those who propose hate-crime laws. He noted that “the reason for the call for
(such laws) comes from bad enforcement of
the laws.” Police and prosecutors have been
willing to look the other way when victims
came from unfavored groups. Luckily, in the
Shepard case, the authorities seem unwavering
in their prosecution. This is, unfortunately,
not always the case.
1998 Ron Paul 122:12
The answer, Cisewski suggested, and I
agree, is that “we hold every law enforcement
official and every court official who administers
justice to the standard that every
American is guaranteed equal protection
under the law.”
Hate-crime laws set up certain privileged
categories of people, defined by the groups to
which they belong, and offers them unequal
protection under the law. This is wrong. It is
sad to see a young man’s personal misfortune
used by various special-interest groups
to advance such an agenda.
1998 Ron Paul 122:13
We are all shocked and dismayed by the assault
on Shepard. Such brutality cannot,
should not be countenanced. Let us not multiply
the crimes of his attackers by writing
bad law in response.
Note:
1998 Ron Paul Chapter 122
The text of this chapter was inserted in the section of CongressionalRecord entitled “Extensions of remarks” and was not spoken on the House floor.
