Fed "Hate Crimes" Bill Passes

Yesterday, the Demorats passed a bill in a manner I'd been assuming they'd perpetrate all along: they attached a rider to an otherwise remarkably popular bill in order to get the smaller bill approved. From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the hate crimes law enacted in the days after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968. With expected passage by the Senate, federal prosecutors will for the first time be able to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays.

How was this bill passed, you ask? Very simple. It was attached to a $680 billion defense authorization policy bill, HR 2647. The House passed the bill 281-146, with 15 Demorats and 131 Republicans in opposition.

This bill duplicates -- imagine that -- what already exists in 45 states. So now federal prosecutors could find themselves picking up what the the FBI says are roughly 8,000 hate crimes reported around the country in a given year. More than half of those are motivated by racial bias. Next most frequent are crimes based on religious bias at around 18 percent and sexual orientation at 16 percent -- the lesser percentile.

If I were a state or local prosecutor? I'd step back from all of my so-called "hate crimes" and let the fed handle. Because, after all:

All victims are equal. Some are just more equal than others.

BZ