The arrest of seven Amish men for the “hate crime” of forcibly cutting the beards of rival Amish is the first major, well-publicized enforcement of the new federal hate crimes law. We may well be on the threshold of a level of police state federalism unprecedented in American history. All Americans should protest. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act authorizes the government to prosecute those it wishes to silence, particularly Christians and anti-Zionist members of the right and the left.
It allows the federal government to directly invade state law enforcement if it is suspected that “hate” motivated a crime of any degree. Such unbridled federal policing power violates our founding documents and the checks and balances they carefully establish. Without effective checks on federal power, we slip dangerously closer to a federal police state.
“Hate” is a concept defined by your point of view. One person’s “hate” is another person’s heartfelt religious conviction.
Today the government defines illegal actions motivated by “hate” as far worse than the illegal action alone; it is called a crime against communities, and against America itself. Hate laws punish a "crime" against society that exists only in the subjective judgment of those in power.
If you throw a rock through someone’s window because you’re drunk, that’s a crime. If you throw a rock through someone’s window because you hate their religion, that’s called a hate crime—and you may face triple penalties because of the thoughts that motivated your crime.
This is why the FBI now threatens seven Amish men with ten years in prison.
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