"This Is About Whether We Value One Another": New Hate Crimes Law Increases Protections for Disabled Persons, Permits Federal Intervention

"This Is About Whether We Value One Another":
New Hate Crimes Law Increases Protections
for Disabled Persons,
Permits Federal Intervention

... And It's Relationship to Southwest Baptist University
and the Missouri Baptist Convention,
who Claim Ownership of the University
~*~

From Disability Scoop:

President Barack Obama signed an expanded hate crimes bill into law Wednesday making it a federal offense to commit a crime against a person based on their disability.

Under the new law, hate crimes protections hearkening back to 1968 will be widened to include crimes committed based on a person’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Already federal law includes protections for crimes committed based on race, color, religion or national origin.

The new law also gives federal authorities more leeway to investigate and prosecute suspected hate crimes. Altogether the bill marks the largest expansion of civil rights protections in decades. (see Article here.)

From President Obama's speech at the signing:

You [all who toiled for years to reach this day] understood that we must stand against crimes that are meant not only to break bones, but to break spirits -- not only to inflict harm, but to instill fear.

You understand that the rights afforded every citizen under our Constitution mean nothing if we do not protect those rights -- both from unjust laws and violent acts. And you understand how necessary this law continues to be. ...

And that's why, through this law, we will strengthen the protections against crimes based on the color of your skin, the faith in your heart, or the place of your birth.

We will finally add federal protections against crimes based on gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

And prosecutors will have new tools to work with states in order to prosecute to the fullest those who would perpetrate such crimes.

Because no one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love. No one in America should be forced to look over their shoulder because of who they are or because they live with a disability.

At root, this isn't just about our laws; this is about who we are as a people. This is about whether we value one another -- whether we embrace our differences, rather than allowing them to become a source of animus. ...

But we sense where such cruelty begins: the moment we fail to see in another our common humanity -- the very moment when we fail to recognize in a person the same fears and hopes, the same passions and imperfections, the same dreams that we all share. ... (see Transcript here.)


The Hate Crimes legislation applies to "violent acts" (assaults or acts that cause physical injury) "motivated by actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of a victim."

An individual may be held criminally liable who "aids, abets, counsels, commands or induces or procures in the commission of a federal crime" -- which sounds uncomfortably like Southwest Baptist University's TO-DO LIST in dealing with Marie's disability, which resulted from the pesticide poisonings on their campus.