Pipe assault prompts call for hate crime registry

[Judi Lynn]

May 8, 2006, 1:00PM
Pipe assault prompts call for hate crime registry


By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Prompted by the savage assault on a Hispanic youth in Spring last month, state Sen. Rodney Ellis called today for requiring hate crime offenders to register with local law enforcement.

He said he will press for the measure in the regular legislative session that begins in January, hoping to create a registry similar to the sex offender registry.

"If registration is good enough for sex offenders, it's good enough for skinheads," said Ellis, D-Houston said at a news conference outside Houston City Hall.

Three aunts and two cousins of the 17-year-old former Klein Collins football player who was attacked April 22 attended the news conference.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3848338.html

[Kutjara]

1. I support the idea, but...

...I'm wondering if, unlike the sex crime registry, the hate crime one would just become a badge of honor. Also, if it's public, it will provide an easy means for neo-nazis to find new members.

Secondly, now that Congress has refused to include attacks on homosexuals in its hate crime legislation, any racist scumbag can avoid being put on the register by simply saying, "I'm not a racist. I thought he was a faggot."

[Igel]

2. I don't know if I do.

The sex crime registry has some problems in some states--public urination and forcible sodomy of an 8-year-old got merged because of bad legislature, and the registry can include live-in partners of sex offenders. But, in principle, all the problems could be fixed: the sex crimes intended to be indicated in the register all have a high recidivism rate, recidivists like to have prey at hand, and it's considered fair warning to parents and others that people likely to relapse and offend again are in the area. That's why the register was created, not to shame the felons.

I'm not sure that hate crimes have the same recidivism rate, or that they move into neighborhoods to be close to their intended targets; that would have to be proven to me before I'd support a hate crimes register. Otherwise the outcome would just to shame the person for the rest of his/her life, even after the debt's been paid to society, and there's already enough shame attached to ex-convicts; or it would be feel-good legislation that did little.