Pirate's Cove

See, attacks on Asians are rising in Democratic Party run cities, so Democrats had to pass a law that this was bad, because there aren’t any sorts of laws against things like assault and tons of hate crimes laws. But, this is a little different

Biden Signs The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Bill As Anti-Asian American Attacks Rise

Following overwhelming support from both chambers of Congress, President Biden signed legislation Thursday that addresses hate crimes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on the increase in violence against Asian Americans.

At an event in the East Room of the White House, Biden thanked lawmakers for coming together to pass the legislation. He said standing against hatred and racism, which he called “the ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation,” is what brings Americans together.

“My message to all of those who are hurting is: We see you and the Congress has said, we see you. And we are committed to stop the hatred and the bias,” he said.

The legislation, introduced by Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, aims to make the reporting of hate crimes more accessible at the local and state levels by boosting public outreach and ensuring reporting resources are available online in multiple languages.

It also directs the Department of Justice to designate a point person to expedite the review of hate crimes related to COVID-19 and authorizes grants to state and local governments to conduct crime-reduction programs to prevent and respond to hate crimes.

Weirdly, these people who are required to wear a mask on the House floor did not have to do so while Joe signed the bill nor as they mingled. Nor any social distancing. And, last time I checked Biden hadn’t ended his EO on wearing a mask on federal property. Anyhow, those last two paragraphs mention what the bill does, and it also denies funding for law enforcement which fails to follow this law and collect and report the information. Like police in Democratic cities don’t have enough to do with dealing with all the spiking crime? The full legislation is at the link, only 8 pages long, worth a read.

Asian Americans have faced a dramatic spike in violence throughout the pandemic. The organization Stop AAPI Hate documented 6,603 hate incidents from March 2020 to March 2021, and leaders said the true number is much higher as many hate crimes go unreported. Democrats have pointed to former President Donald Trump’s frequent use of racist phrases such as “kung flu” to describe the coronavirus as a link to the increase in anti-Asian sentiment in the country.

And the vast majority of those occurred in cities that are run exclusively, or almost, by Democrats. These are cities that voted overwhelmingly for China Joe.

Republicans explain their vote against Asian American hate crimes legislation

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in easily passing a bill aimed at addressing the recent rise in attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. But unlike in the Senate, where Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri cast the only “no” vote, 62 Republicans in the House voted against the legislation, which President Biden signed into law on Thursday. (snip)

For Hawley and his colleagues over in the House, the bill was anything but necessary.

“It’s too broad,” he said in a statement explaining his vote. “As a former prosecutor, my view is it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents.”

“My big problem with Sen. Hirono’s bill … is that it turns the federal government into the speech police — gives government sweeping authority to decide what counts as offensive speech and then monitor it. Raises big free speech questions,” Hawley wrote.

Again, read the bill. It very much interferes with Free Speech. Someone might be yelling nasty things at Asians (or blacks or whites or you), but, unless that includes threats, it is just bad words. The government does not get to decide what is offensive speech.

Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., one of four Korean Americans serving in Congress, was among the 147 House Republicans who backed the legislation. The congresswoman said she has experienced racism firsthand and chose to be on the right side of the issue. “I have been called racist slurs and been treated differently because I am Asian American,” she said on the House floor.

Well, lots of us have been called lots of nasty things in our life. That is life, sadly. Steel is rather showing that this bill is about legislating what people can say. Which violates that 1st Amendment thingy, right?

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, echoed Hawley and suggested that the spike in violence against Asian Americans was tied to efforts backed by some Democrats and other progressives to decrease funding for the police.

“This violence, by and large, is happening in Democrat-controlled cities, many of which, interestingly enough, have defunded their police departments,” Jordan said on the House floor.

Every single incident recounted in the article occurred in a Democratic Party run city. Atlanta, NYC, Orange Park, Ca., NYC, San Francisco, Oakland, none of which are run by Republicans and are majority Democrat voters. Anyhow, will anyone file suit over this, as it clearly violates the 1st Amendment, no matter the good intentions?