(no subject)

[jackofallgeeks]

Keeping with today's trend, I find This to be rather
irritating, but also a little frightening. A woman in Canada had her
children (aged 7 and 2) taken away by Family Services after drawing a
swastika on her daughter's arm (apparently a repeat offense). Now, granted,
given that the home was full of neo-Nazi flags and such, and the woman
acknowledges her political leanings, and given that the whole Nazi thing has
a LOT of bad attached to it, not the least of which is a legacy of hate,
racism, and genocide -- given that, it's hard to have sympathy. But if her
only crime is holding beliefs you don't like, and that's enough to
take her children away, that's really frightening. It wouldn't take
much change for a lot of my personal, political, and religious beliefs to be
held as offensive.

Comments

[starlight1184.livejournal.com]

I have to agree entirely. Where do you draw the line between holding beliefs that are simply not popular and not agreed with by the majority of the population, and hate crimes? It's a fuzzy area... but I agree. As abominable as I find that woman, I don't see the reason for taking her children.

[starlight1184.livejournal.com]

*side note* as I think on the comment I just left, I'm not sure that abominable is appropriately used above. If it is, great. If not, I apologize for slaughtering the English language. It's some a-word that I'm looking for. Abhor? Somehting like that.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Abominable: (1) worthy of or causing disgust or hatred : detestable

Abhorrent: (3) being so repugnant as to stir up positive antagonism

I think either one fits.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Well, for my part, I'm pretty much wholly against the institution of "hate crimes" as a punishable offense. Granted, as an upper-middle class white christian male, that's probably really easy for me to say. But my point is... Well, it's like this example here. If there's actual, measurable harm done -- injury or property damage, or even some of the more ephemeral crimes that we already have like libel and such -- then we already have laws to handle it. Battery is still mattery regardless of the motivations and I'm not sure it's that much more offensive if the motivation is because of race or religion or whatever.

If there isn't actual physical injury or property damage (or established ephemeral harms), I'm hard pressed to find where a crime has been committed. Mostly because a lot of the time it's because you say or think or behave in a way that makes other people upset. Well, so be it. You have your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; nothing says you have the right to be un-offended, or un-perturbed, or whatever.

I don't know. Just some thoughts.