Last week the Maryland Senate added the homeless to those protected by hate crime legislation.
Religious groups and minorities, including those designated so by their sexual orientation, are also covered under the legislation ? in other words, almost everyone. Isn?t all crime hateful? Besides, doesn?t the law already provide numerous ways to prosecute those who break it ? regardless of the victim?s background or persuasions? Yes it does. And the law already provides for varying penalties based on intent.
Recommended Stories
Beating up a homeless person is despicable, but this law won?t do anything to prevent it from happening. It will only reclassify the crime. Even for those who argue the philosophical merits of the bill, no evidence supportsthat it?s necessary. The National Coalition for the Homeless, which supports the proposed legislation, records two attacks against the homeless, one fatal, in Maryland since 2004. No one can condone those assaults, but if the law were in place, how would it have helped to deter those crimes?
The House should drop the bill. It would be better for our legislators to focus their short time in Annapolis on bills to prevent crime instead of wasting it on enacting meaningless symbols. This kind of legislative “work” does virtually nothing to advance the important causes of our great state of Maryland.
