The Hate Crimes Farce

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Have you ever used a racial slur?

You may have two answers to that question. There's your initial, visceral, response: No! Of course not! Never!

But then there's the response you'd give if you were being a little more honest: maybe… once or twice. So, if you have, does it make you a racist? In the court of liberal opinion at least, the answer seems to be yes.

In the Trayvon Martin case, in which neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman is accused in the shooting death of Martin, the liberal consensus seems to be that Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, acted out of racial hatred against Martin, who was black, and thus is guilty of a "hate crime."

According to the FBI, "A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson or vandalism with an added element of bias." Hate crime laws move beyond the criminalization of free speech to outlaw thoughts society deems unacceptable.

Establishing whether a criminal was motivated by bias or hate is nearly impossible because it's nearly impossible to distinguish correlation from causation. Just because a criminal hates a particular group of people and commits a crime against a member of that group does not necessarily mean he was motivated by hatred when he committed the crime in question.

Of course, there's little evidence that Zimmerman hates blacks. The only supporting evidence so far is a recording of the 9/11 call he made as he pursued Martin. In it, Zimmerman appears to say, "They always get away, f----ing coons."

The word "coon" is undoubtedly racist and hateful. But there is doubt about what Zimmerman actually said. It could have been "goons" not "coons."

Let's assume Zimmerman committed a crime in shooting Martin, and that he used the word "coon" in reference to Martin. Does that make the shooting a hate crime?

Many on the left seem to think so, including the 21 Democrats who last week convened a Capitol Hill briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes. The Justice Department and FBI are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.