Free Speech or Hate Crime ?

A big issue when discussing hate crime and speech is the first amendment right to free speech. Should we allow white supremacists or neo-Nazis to openly insult and degrade other people because they have the right to free speech? There are many limits on free speech today that people sometimes ignore, like libel laws and privacy regulations. If someone makes the environment hostile and the rest of the people uncomfortable, should they continue to be able to say whatever they want? This issue of rights occurs between the person speaking and the open discussion this right represents to the rights of the person spoken to to be in an environment where they feel safe. But both sides are tricky because focusing only on extremely hateful speech or on the rights of the person speaking only serve to perpetuate racism and hinder diversity. An article on this issue: http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010196217&mode=view

The Culture of Hate

The main solution I'm proposing to end hate crime is prevention through education. Other people see this as a good solution as well. Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields met with a group of leaders in 2005 to talk about education. She said that "“Our children are not born to hate. They learn it. We can prevent them from learning to hate...The culture of hate is destroying our society." (http://www.indypressny.org/nycma/voices/183/series/stump_2/) Executive director of the Council of Peoples said that the most immediate way to prevent hate crimes would be to send a message to the criminals in this way, and that “We have to demonstrate that we are united, that we won’t tolerate these types of crimes and that we’re going to fight so that it doesn’t happen again." The Anti-Defamation League also has a list of programs that work toward educating people about hate crimes and why they happen so that they can be prevented. http://www.adl.org/education/default_combat_hc.asp

The APA also published an interesting article about the kind of people that commit hate crimes and why they do it. http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov01/hatecrimes.aspx People tend to see the "out-groups" they are not a part of as more homogenous and similar to each other. Oftentimes criminals aren't psychotic but are very troubled with a history of violence.