Well, hate's now a crime, even if you don't do anything...
 

I'm not a big fan of the modern evangelicals, but this may be really interesting to watch.

Whole thing here .

"In the fall, Philadelphia police charged Marcavage with various misdemeanors, as well as felony counts of riot, criminal conspiracy, and -- most controversially -- "ethnic" intimidation, Pennsylvania's version of a hate crime. Homosexuals, as of 2002, are given protection under the state's Ethnic Intimidation Act."

My understanding of free speech is that limits can be set on time place and manner. This is why we now have 'free speech zones'. IMO, the people who think this guy should be allowed to use a bullhorn during someone elses event had better understand that they are going to allow gay rights groups to use a bullhorn at the next Christian Coalition rally.

The law is not supposed to censor content, just the manner in which the content is delivered.

I think if that dumbass showed up at anything that I was attending and shouted the speaker down with a bullhorn.....I might commit a real "hate" crime.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought we were all entitled to equal protection under the law. Making an act a bigger crime (via harsher penalties) when commited against a member of a certain group relative to someone not a member of that group constitutes, imo, unequal protection under the law and, therefore, is unconstitutional. Radar? Anyone? Bueller?

Well we are all equal....but pigs are more equal than others. :eyebrow:

Around here, we are frequently exposed to that holy fellow, Fred Phelps . This is a guy who sponsors demonstrations at the funerals of AIDS victims, screaming through a bullhorn at the greiving families and friends.

I've seen them picketing at a Melissa Etheridge concert, and heard countless tales of their psychopathic religious fervor.

There's a very, very special room in Fred's Hell for him and his ilk. He's getting up in years, and I hope to be able to attend a protest at his funeral...silent, reverent, and thankful that he's gone, and hoping that his brainwashed adult children won't be as effective at spreading his vile version of God as he has been.

Unequal protection under the law
 

With the 60's social movements, great strides have been made to give dispensation to minority groups, stemming from the African-American civil rights movement. Once it is done in one place it extends to groups of every shade and orientation. Accordingly, the trend has been for federal and district court judges to legislate from the bench, viewing legislative bodies to slow and bureuacratic to deal effectively with social issues. This trend has lead to a new legal oligarchy, one that sometimes countervenes the Constitution. One has to ask themselves, "Is this trend, interpertation, and tweaking of American Constitutional law, justified?" This includes quota programs, and welfare criteria.

-Walrus

If I call a white man a nigger, is that a hate crime? If so, against whom? Is it any different than calling him a pig or an asshole?

Now what if it's a black man? Nigger, pig, asshole...I've truely insulted the man with any of those and would expect him to kick my ass.

Hate crime? Bullshit! :crazy:

Since when is homosexuality a race or religion? Or even an ethnic group?

As much as I hate to agree with the intolerant scumbag assholes harassing gay people, ALL OF AMERICA IS A FREE SPEECH ZONE!!! We don't require the permission of government to peacefully gather on public grounds, and a cop has no legitimate authority to tell us to break it up or to leave. Government has no grounds to censor the kind of message or the method of delivery.

All violent crimes are hate crimes. And hate crime legislation is a farse. It's an attempt to turn the government into the thought police. The legitimate role of government is to punish crimes, not motives. We have the right to hate anyone we want.

There is no difference in a crime where a man kills an old lady because he wants her purse, and in a crime where he kills her because she's Jewish. In either case she's equally dead. The crime is killing her, not hating her.

Homosexuality is not a race or an ethnic group, but it is something you're born as every bit as much as a race or ethic group. Being gay is like being black. You're born that way or you're not and nothing anyone says to the contrary has any validity.

Hey, where's Sycamore when you need him?

Why? You need a gay take on this? :)

Well, Fred has been at it again.

It's too bad Pat Roberston called off the assassination squad, maybe he could have redirected them to Kansas. Phelps is an embarrassment to evangelicals (or is he a Pentacostal?), Christians, deists, and the human race in general.

Maybe we'll all get lucky and Phelps will tape an endorsement for the school board members who voted for Intelligent Design.

Phelps is more than an embarassment. He is a certified, card carrying abomination. He is no more human than this keyboard I'm typing on. Ptui!

[/quote]The big legal question is, has the DA overreached on the ethnic intimidation charge?[quote]
Overreached may be an understatement. I'd hate to be the prosecutor on this one. You'd have to fray the edges of the constitution to pull it off.

If one American has the right to chose any certain lifestyle, then his fellow American should have an equal right to tell the world that it pisses him off.

I nominate the Cellar for President. Hell, we'll run the country from down here. May be an improvement. UT, you up to it? ;)