Comments on: Thought Crimes

By: I hate hate-crimes

I hate hate-crimes — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:12:25 +0000

in response to the first point, yeah, it is punishing a person because of the ideas they hold. this might be bad in any other circumstances but when it comes to crime, i don’t really see the problem. it isn’t really punishment for thinking something. it’s punishment for doing something stupid, cruel and disgusting because of the ideas and opinions. thinking something derogatory is fine when it’s confined to someone’s head. but when that thought becomes action in the form of violence, then that is unacceptable and should be punished.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:52:39 +0000

Under this sort of legislation, the crimes of Hitler are more deserving of harsh retribution than the crimes of Stalin. Whereas Stalin’s murder of millions was motivated by politics, Hitler’s was motivated by racial hatred and therefore is an entirely different class in the minds of the Victorian government.

Assault is assault and murder is murder. It doesn’t matter if someone was bashed because the assailant didn’t like the victim’s skin colour or whether he did it because he didn’t like the colour of his jacket. Both victims are entitled to receive the same justice meted out on the basis of the severity of the crime.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:34:13 +0000

As motives can be used as extenuating circumstances leading to lighter sentences it seems reasonable that they may constitute aggravating circumstances leading to heavier sentences too.

By: Selwa

Selwa — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:20:22 +0000

The thought police,

We already have state education, state meddling in religion including funding acceptable religious opinion and criminalising other religious speech as sedition or glorifying terrorism.

Where is the harmony that all of this state control is supposed to foster?