Monday, May 07, 2007

Hate Crimes and Local Governments, Ctd.   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Bradford Plumer takes another stab at the issue. He seems to think that it would be bigoted for conservatives to accept laws against hate crimes while opposing their extension to cover hate crimes motivated by hostility to gays. I don't see why a conservative who thinks hate-crimes laws are a bad idea generally couldn't conclude that they aren't going to be uprooted from the statute books but shouldn't be expanded in scope, either. Politicians make this sort of judgment all the time.

Plumer also tries to provide more evidence for the claim that local law enforcement agencies have a special problem finding funds to fight hate crimes, and thus require federal assistance. But that evidence, at least on first glance, seems to indicate a lack of interest rather than a lack of resources on the local agencies' part. And a relative lack of interest in prosecuting hate crimes in particular may reflect a legitimate set of priorities. Some jurisdictions may not have a lot of hate crimes, for example; and the diversity of jurisdictions' needs is a reason to stick with federalism.

05/07 03:08 PMShare