http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/10/620000629/1
This article is about legislation that was recently passed states "After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are." It talks about how hate crimes have increased recently. In the past ten years there have been 12,000 hate crimes reported against gays alone. This done not count all the crimes that were not reported, or crimes based on race, religion or other things. It also talked about how this legislation stems from two cases in 1998, one where a black male was tied to the back of a truck and dragged until he died. The other case a gay male was severely beaten and then tied to a fence, and left to die.
This article is about legislation that was recently passed states "After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are." It talks about how hate crimes have increased recently. In the past ten years there have been 12,000 hate crimes reported against gays alone. This done not count all the crimes that were not reported, or crimes based on race, religion or other things. It also talked about how this legislation stems from two cases in 1998, one where a black male was tied to the back of a truck and dragged until he died. The other case a gay male was severely beaten and then tied to a fence, and left to die.
This is news because of magnitude. This affects everyone across our nation, and not just in big cities, or the south, or any isolated part of our country. Hate crimes can take place anywhere where there is a discriminatory person. I'm sure there have been several cases of hate crimes in the CF/Waterloo area.
I am glad that this legislation has been passed. No deserves to be beaten or teased or killed just because of their sexual orientation, race, or nationality. I don't think this will necessarily stop that many crimes from taking place though. I think this because if someone is going to commit a crime like this, they know they can get in serious trouble, and it hasn't stopped them in the past. However, maybe, people hearing stories about how much prison time these people get could discourage and prevent some cases from occurring. The bottom line though, is even if this prevents just 1 hate crime from being committed, then it was worth passing.
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