Hate Speech Criminal Penalties

[DangerDave921]

I keep hearing about hate crime trials going on in Europe and Canada. How do DU'ers feel about criminal laws against hate speech? Should people be tried in criminal court for hate speech?

[anonymous171]

1. No.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. no.

We have a 1st amendment that is supposed to protect us from such laws.

[exothermic]

3. No. Like obscenity, it is undefinable.

As much as {you, we, or I} might like to regulate what others can say, what constitutes it is a matter of opinion.

[scheming daemons]

4. No.... speech and thought should NEVER be punished....

Only actions.


That's why "Hate Crimes" penalties are wrong and extra-constitutional.


Penalize the act, not the thoughts.


We have the right to think (and say) whatever we want. We don't always have the right to act on those thoughts or words.

[aspergris]

5. Absolutely not

These laws, whether civil or criminal are an abomination

Also, any laws that pick on Brigitte Bardot are bad :)
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h1N4N6pzrHw9Lunbyjbb4u4yrqxg

PARIS (AFP) — France's 1960s screen icon Brigitte Bardot received a 15,000-euro (23,000 dollar) fine on Tuesday for inciting hatred against Muslims.

In December 2006, the film star-turned-animal rights activist wrote a letter to France's then interior minister, current President Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that Muslims should stun animals before slaughtering them during the Aid al-Kabir holiday.

She outraged anti-racist groups by saying: "I've had enough of being led by the nose by this whole population which is destroying us, (and) destroying our country by imposing their ways."

Bardot, now 73 and suffering from arthritis, was absent from Tuesday's court hearing in Paris. She wrote to the court saying: "I'm sickened by how (these organisations) are harassing me."