There Are No Bias Crimes!

So why do we need laws? Well that is the thinking of the Idaho Republicans.

Creeping Fascism? Idaho Ponders Limiting Hate Crimes Laws
KLIX
By Bill Colley
January 24, 2024

If someone robs you, is that ever considered a love crime?  If someone punches you in the face, is that a sign the guy is a good neighbor?  If someone poisons your dog, is that a sign they care?

I’ve never been a fan of hate crime laws.  If you beat someone up, it’s against the law.  No matter their ancestry, lifestyle preference, or religion.  Hate crime laws are redundant.  They’re used to increase sentences or leverage for guilty pleas.

A pair of Idaho Legislators would like to change some of that, and liberal media isn’t happy.  The story I saw is behind a paywall at the Idaho Statesman.  First, I know the Statesman needs to make a profit to keep the lights on.  The initial offer for a subscription is a good deal.  Later, you’ll pay through the nose for a vastly depleted product.

But I digress.  Liberal media sees hostiles everywhere on the American right.  Put on a MAGA hat and you’re an immediate villain looking to exercise your violent instincts anywhere on the streets.  So, the media, like fellow travelers in the Democrat Party want you controlled.  Pile up some more rules.  Create etiquette laws and then use those to silence dissent.  The warped wretches in American newsrooms don’t plan to listen to any arguments against their position.  In their minds, they see themselves surrounded by enemies, and opposition to hate crimes legislation tags you as a bad guy.

Lets see what made the news headline from Idaho this weekend?

Racial attack in Coeur d’Alene shows more work needed to combat racism in Idaho | Opinion
The Idaho Statesman
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
MARCH 26, 2024

A racial attack in North Idaho is an infuriating reminder that Idaho still has much more work to do to purge ourselves of the hateful scourge of white supremacy and racism.

The Utah women’s basketball team was playing in Spokane for the NCAA Tournament but was staying in a hotel in Coeur d’Alene because of a lack of hotel rooms in Spokane, according to KSL.com, which first reported the story.

While the basketball team, the band and the cheerleading team were walking to a restaurant Thursday night, a white truck got near the team and revved its engine, and its occupants then yelled the N-word toward the team before speeding off, according to KSL.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? … Everybody was in shock — our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Utah deputy athletics director Charmelle Green, who is Black, told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Two hours later, after dinner, as they left the restaurant, two trucks showed up and revved their engines and their occupants yelled the N-word again.

It’s like a bad scene out of a cliche movie about racism in the segregated South in the 1950s.

But here it is happening in real life in Idaho in 2024.

Naw, they don’t need a fascist bias crime law in Idaho.

Going back to last November…

Man sentenced for federal hate crimes against Idaho LGBTQ+ community
Matthew Lehigh was first arrested in October 2022 after Boise police received reports of him yelling threats, slurs
Idaho Capital Sun
BY: MIA MALDONADO
NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Almost a year ago, Brett Perry and John Michael Schert came to their North End home to discover that their pride flag outside had been burned. On Thursday, the couple saw the perpetrator, Matthew Lehigh, sentenced to prison on federal hate crime charges.

The conviction marks the second time an anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime has ever been brought to court and prosecuted in Idaho, according to District of Idaho spokesperson Cassandra Fulghum.

Lehigh, 32, was first arrested in Oct. 2022 after Boise police received reports of him yelling threats, anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and driving his car toward people. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Lehigh later admitted also to setting fire to the pride flag in the North End, breaking several windows at an LGBTQ+ community building, and punching a grocery store customer after calling him a slur.

Local authorities could not pursue Lehigh’s actions as a hate crime, because the Idaho Human Rights Act does not protect people based on sexual orientation or gender identity. But in January, the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in and indicted Lehigh on federal hate crime charges.

At a federal courthouse in Boise Thursday, federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced Lehigh to federal prison for 37 months. Winmill also ordered Lehigh to pay $200 in court fees and $7,000 in restitution to victims.

Following his prison sentence, Lehigh will be placed under three years of supervised release.

Idaho doesn’t need any bias crime laws, there are no hate crimes there!