Dissent: Government should stay out of state affairs

Before I even begin, I would like to say that beating someone based on his or her sexual orientation is the act of a despicable coward who needs to be prosecuted with the full extent of the law. That said, I believe the federal authorities need not be brought in when such a crime occurs, as proposed by President Bill Clinton in his anti-hate crime legislation currently languishing in Congress.\nClinton wants to add new categories, including sexual orientation, gender and disability, to a 1968 federal law put into place to protect the Civil Rights movement. The law allows federal prosecutors to pursue a hate-crime case if local authorities refuse. \nIn 1968, the federal government had to step in because the southern states were out of control, and drastic times called for drastic measures. Sometimes, the local authorities were the perpetrators of the hate crimes. It is somewhat hard to go to the police station and press charges against the police.\nI can safely say, when it comes to discrimination in this country, the gay community has it a little bit easier than an African-American man in 1960s Alabama. These are not drastic times. I have never seen the police use fire hoses, nightsticks and attack dogs on a gay parade. I have never seen a photo of a group of gay bashers proudly posing in front of a lynched homosexual. The people who did these things against African Americans went unpunished for so long that a federal law had to be passed.\nIn one of the nation's most publicized, revolting crimes against a gay man, the 1998 Matthew Shepard killing in Wyoming, his murderers escaped the death penalty only after Shepard's parents asked the judge to show them mercy in the memory of their son. The killers currently are serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole and without the possibility to appeal. The Wyoming judge had no need for a federal law to meet out proper justice.\nGranted, newspapers around the country have reported a rise in hate crimes against people who are gay. For example, attacks against people who are gay in California's Los Angeles county have increased 22 percent in1999, according to The Jerusalem Post. But in that same story, the local authorities did not attribute the increase to more crimes against people who are gay but to the alertness by local police agencies and the willingness of victims to come forward. Greater communication between the gay community and local police will bring these crimes to light better than any federal law. We do not need to tie up federal resources to investigate a battery when the local authorities are more than capable of doing the job. No one is escaping prison terms because the victim happens to be gay.\nFinally, for those in Bloomington, if the Bloomington Police Department ignores a hate crime against you, by all means, report it to the IDS. I'm sure we can help you more than a federal prosecutor ever dreamed.