SB 107 (Hate Crimes Amendments)

Libertas Institute opposes this bill.

This bill would require a "penalty enhancement" for crimes in which the aggressor targeted the victim because of his or her “belief or perception regarding [the] individual’s ancestry, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation,” or the victim’s affiliation with a group that shares one or more of these characteristics.

Libertas Institute opposes this bill. Whether an assault was instigated by the aggressor’s jealousy, drunkenness, anger, or discriminatory “perception” about the victim’s personal characteristics is immaterial. Taxpayers should not be required to subsidize higher incarceration rates in pursuit of misnamed “social justice.”