Laws that are useless

I admit that being discriminated against is low on my list of things to be anxious about. That, however, does not make me sympathetic to hate crimes. I agree that hate crimes are a blemish to a civilized nation.

Having said that, I believe hate crime legislation is largely, if not totally, ineffective. We have laws against assault and murder. These laws can be appealed to irrespective of the motivation that led to the crime. William Skinner (BDN, March 8) suggests there is a significant number of persons inhibited from performing some dastardly deed against hated others because of the presence of a law. He admits, and I must concur, that this effect, if any, is of unknown size, but he is confident there is an effect. I cannot say the effect is unknown given our present information.

I object to these laws because I regard them as useless. It was Montesquieu, in his “The spirit of the laws,” who said that useless laws weaken necessary laws. Hate crime laws are a part of the overlegislation of this age. They are formulated in the spirit of “there ought to be a law.” Let’s prosecute those who commit crimes and deal with the criminals who commit them. Our law need not concern itself with the motives of those malefactors.

Hans Schmidt

Lamoine