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Monday, November 09, 2009

DENNIS PATRICK: THE DEVIOUS HATE CRIMES LAW

President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2010 on October 28, 2009. The signing followed convoluted action by the congress. Funding all activities and procurement for the entire Department of Defense for the fiscal year 2010 beginning October 1, 2009, was the primary purpose of the bill.

 

With the exception of individuals who have ties to the military, most people have little reason to pay attention to the progress of this legislation. Contrasted with the astronomical cost of pending health care legislation, this year’s Department of Defense budget of $680 billion pales by comparison.

 

The Pentagon is not the kind of place that can turn on a dime,” said Defense secretary Robert Gates at the NDAA signing. Likewise, American society cannot turn on a dime either, Mr. Gates. Liberals will try anything to advance their cause.

 

The NDAA’s progress went like this. Appropriately, the original House defense spending bill, H.R. 2647, did not include hate crimes language. Hate crimes language was included in a separate bill, H.R. 1913, which passed the House on April 29 but it wasn’t clear the Senate would pass the bill.

 

Those in the Senate supporting hate crimes legislation were able to attach hate crimes language from H.R. 1913 to the Senate version of the NDAA, S. 1390. After all, who would vote against “supporting the troops” just because of some measly gay activist amendment? The Senate passed their version of the bill on July 28, 2009.

 

The House and Senate conference committee reconciled minor differences between their respective versions of the NDAA during the week of October 6 Then, on October 28, 2009, Obama signed the NDAA into law.

 

If the FY 2010 NDAA drew little public attention, amendments to the bill drew even less. The radical new hate crimes legislation attached to the defense appropriations bill gave it the alternative title of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

 

The latest hate crimes legislation is the largest expansion since 1968. It includes “perceived” hate crimes (thought crimes) based on sexual orientation, increased penalties for hate crimes although penalties already exist for these crimes and opens the door permitting prosecution for the same crime at both the state and federal levels (double jeopardy). Additionally, people of faith who speak in opposition to homosexuality on religious grounds may be in violation of this law. Some lucky folks will eventually have to experience grief and legal costs to test the constitutionality of the law in court.

 

Because the expanded hate crimes legislation would never pass the senate on its own merit, some vehicle had to be found which would avoid a floor debate and the senate would not vote against. The NDAA was the perfect vehicle. Who would dare vote against supporting our troops in harm’s way?

 

That’s no way to pay respect to our men and women in uniform.

 

Enter Major Nidal Malik Hasan and the travesty (not tragedy) he perpetrated on November 5, 2009, at Ft. Hood, TX. How ironic that he committed mass murder almost a week to the day after Obama signed into law the NDAA hate crimes provision. Shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) he shot 42 fellow soldiers at a processing center before he himself was taken down.

 

How much of this scenario stemmed from a vibrant diversity of a politically correct society is anybody’s guess. It is known that the good psychiatrist sympathized with suicide bombers, was attempting to contact al Qaeda and that he had no problem with the recruiting station murder of a soldier on June 1, 2009, in Little Rock, AR by Abdulhakim Muhammad. The mainstream media has apologetically airbrushed the story expressing sympathy for the murderer with scant focus on families and survivors who will live with the carnage.

 

Hasan had not served in Iraq or Afghanistan but was on orders to deploy to the war zone. Therefore, he wasn’t suffering from the current understanding of PTSD -- Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The way he has been reported you might think Hasan suffered from a new-fashioned disorder -- a reverse PTSD or Pre-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

 

Will Major Hasan be charged with a hate crime under the NDAA that Obama just signed into law? Probably not. His victims were not a protected class of citizens. However, a case may be made that he is an Islamic extremist falling into the category of a home-grown, self-radicalized terrorist.

 

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Click here to email your elected representatives.

Comments

A grant from the Saudi’s could fund sensitivity training at the many mosques they are financing. A better avenue may be training and testing of our legislators on the US Constitution!!!

herb on November 9, 2009 at 02:33 pm
Avatar for NCLEX Review

Is this really true?

Jema
Author, NCLEX Review

NCLEX Review on February 27, 2010 at 09:48 am
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