CRIMINAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS EQUAL TERRORISTS??

Well, here it is, folks! The slippery slope being slowly slid down. I'm all for gay rights, equal rights for women and minorities, I'm for animal rights, a people's sovereign rights, religious rights, reproductive rights and anything else that guarantees a basic level of stasis for humanity. One thing I'm against is hate crime legislation. To me, it's a form of prosecution that George Orwell called "WrongThinking". In his novel, 1984, people are punished simply for thinking certain things. This is obviously bad. However, are laws that punish you more for a hate crime any different? It's not like you killed a person more than you would have if you didn't hate them for being gay or black or whatever. I mean, dead is dead. What difference does it make why I did it? All that matters is that I did it. Of course, the defense is that these laws are trying to discourage these kinds of crimes from happening. It's less bad to kill for greed or jealousy's sake, but kill a man because he likes other men and that's worse? Basically, the people behind these laws are trying to legislate thought. Essentially outlawing these kinds of thoughts. I think it's a slippery slope to arresting people for what they think. Now, DemocracyNow.Org reports in [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/16/140212|today's headlines] that we're inching a bit further down that slippery slope in naming environmentalists who commit crimes terrorists. Here's how DN reported it today:

Prosecutors Environmental Activists to Be Sentenced as Terrorists Federal prosecutors in Oregon said yesterday that a group of 10 environmental and animal rights activists should be considered terrorists for their involvement in a series of politically-motivated arsons. One attorney for the Bush administration likened the activists to the Ku Klux Klan. Attorneys for the activists condemned the government's move. Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center: "The government in this case is seeking to apply the terrorist enhancement to individuals who are accused of environmentally motivated property crimes alone. This is the first time in the history of our country that the government is seeking this enhancement for crimes did not involve the murder or the attempted murder of humans. The reason is obviously political." Sentencing for the activists is scheduled to begin next week. If the judge determines the activists to be terrorists it could add 20 years to their prison sentences.

So, now setting an empty SUV on fire is equivalent to suicide bombing and crashing planes into buildings. See what happens when you let the motivation for a crime determine how serious it is? How serious a crime is should be based on the act, itself. If a guy cuts off a man's head with a hatchet, that's much more barbaric than simply shooting a man in the chest. Do this any other way and we get into determining what should and should not legally go on in someone's head. Hence, the coming of wrongthinking as a crime. 1984 may be still yet to come, folks. However, we can stop it if we just pay attention and keep questioning.

---

Orignal From: CRIMINAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS EQUAL TERRORISTS??