Rainbows are Getting Back in Style

Timothy Birdnow

Prosecutors in Atlanta are considering charging a couple of teenagers who stole pride flags from a gay bar with felony "hate crimes" which would put these kids in prison for years to decades.

This is at most a case of petty theft and vandalism.

That is the trouble with "hate crimes" laws; they grant special privileges to some people, and at the same time there is no clear definition of a hate crime, because it ultimately goes to the state of mind of the person so charged. It is entirely subjective.

So now a couple of stupid kids who made a not serious mistake are going to pay for the rest of their lives so a bunch of guilt-ridden white liberals can feel good about themselves.

Liberals are forever telling us that burning or mutilating the American flag is protected speech, yet here they hold a massive double standard. If these kids had cut up Old Glory they would be celebrated.

In 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the burning of the American flag was protected speech under the First Amendment. So how can this be anything BUT a First Amendment issue?

That doesn't mean the kids should get off; they clearly broke the law by stealing under $150 (making it a misdemeanor). But that is all they can or should be charged with.

How do prosecutors know these kids weren't cutting these flags up just to get rid of the evidence? How do they know it wasn't a case of them needing some cloth? This whole case will be built on supposition and assumptions. We know what happens when we assume.

And that holds true for other flags. How many times have Confederate flags or Gadsden flags been vandalized? Many. How is THAT not a hate crime by this definition? Certainly Confederates are a minority in America and subject to discrimination. But that is APPROVED discrimination so I guessit's o.k.

As I have pointed out in days of yore, the article makes this point:

Indeed it's not and you can be a Klansman or a Nazi if your twisted heart so desires. During the fifties and sixties the Communists asserted this very fact to resist the House Un-American Activities Committee, Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the like. But these folks don't want to extend the same courtesy to anyone they claim (falsely in both cases) to be "on the right". What they are trying to do is criminalize any thinking with which they disagree. Hate crimes legislation was simply the nose of the camel in the tent. We've seen them working their way towards other such things after having gotten these laws on the books.

And hate crimes laws have never been challenged in court. It seems a fair bet they would lose at the Supreme Court, as they are CLEARLY unconstitutional.

Some are NOT more equal than others in American jurisprudence. Yes, in practicality they are, but there is a reason that tart with the scales is wearing a blindfold. It's not that Americans are two-baggers...

We've seen this sort of abuse happen repeatedly, I might add. Remember the Duke lacrosse players? Remember that kid who had to use a gun to protect himself from a group of thugs at a rally and was prosecuted and dragged through the mud? Remember the special forces guy (Daniel Penny) charged with a hate crime and and murder for stopping a crazed man who was threatening passengers on the subway? How many times have children been arrested and kicked out of school for toy guns? This is just more of the same, abuse people so you can make the rest afraid to speak their minds.

I hope the ACLJ is on this case. We need to rally around these kids; they are facing losing their whole lives for a teenage prank.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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