Quote:
Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
So you seem to think our penal law should be applied according to "collective guilt"?
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You'd make a good talk radio host or plaintiffs' lawyer. No, I don't think penal laws should be applied based on collective guilt, whatever the fuck that means, nor did anything in my post remotely suggest that I do. But nice sound bite.
It's entirely reasonable for citizens to want a statute on the books that requires punishment where a crime is committed because of the victim's membership in a class. This is particularly true where the same sorts of crimes went unprosecuted and unpunished until relatively recently. It was illegal to hang black people, and to bomb their houses, etc., in the 1950s and 1960s, but those crimes were not prosecuted, and the white killers went free. Why shouldn't the state now communicate to its citizens that times have changed and these crimes are now viewed as so serious that they justify extra punishment? Penal statutes enhance all sorts of extra-bad conduct, why not crimes directed at particular groups?
