We've been publishing a series of articles on the general topic of Hate Crimes and Assaults here on the Loper Website. As a part of this series, we are interviewing people with something to share - insight, opinion, even more questions - and will publish these interviews from time to time. The framework for the interviews is a questionnaire, but we will not slavishly force each interview to follow a prescribed format - ideas flow too freely for that.

Dave Sagarin interview with Randy Byrd

Should there be hate crimes laws at all?

Any crime is a hate crime. I worry that, if they can prove that you had an internal thought - [or if] you had a history [of bias] - then [they can] tack on years or add a crime to the charge.

The problem with hate crime legislation is, they should have left it to judge's discretion. I'm a Republican, but I think a lot of this [kind of law] is a conservative knee-jerk reaction to liberal judges - I have a problem with three strikes [laws], hate crimes [laws] … the answer is to get more conservative judges. If you don't like [what] your judges [are doing] change the judges, not the law.

Would we also have Love Crime laws, you know, where the old guy steals the medicine his wife has to have and they can't afford it? Should there be a statute with a mandatory reduction in sentence for a Love Crime?

If judge wants to forgive time [because of] mitigating circumstances - [For example, some years ago] a guy in Buckingham county catches his wife with a friend or neighbor, and he kills her - he gets off with two years or something. The judge has discretion - we don't have 'crime of passion' laws, but he can take the circumstances into account ... [the husband] is not a danger to society.

Since we do have these laws, should the classes of people who are protected be extended?

Race maybe was the first classification that got special protected status, and sex orientation.

Mr. Gay in Roanoke, James Byrd in Texas - notorious cases - were very much in the public mind , and people wanted to do something about it.

Women were not included [in the protected classes] - they're not in the Virginia statute. But spousal abuse is a crime against women. It's got to be some kind of hate - a person with issues against women [who does things like] rape, beating up women.

Comments on recent assaults

In these local crimes - [I heard that] one of the kids was in a police car [and] said they assaulted [one victim] because she was a woman - this kid's a woman-hater. Maybe [they chose her because] she's a white woman - but it is bias crime.

Alvin Edwards raising money for their defense caused an uproar. Can you imagine if neo-nazis did a thing like this and somebody took up a collection for them?

If bias thoughts and expressions are protected speech, why isn't bias as a motive protected?

It's an interestsing point. Can people be charged with complicity for their speech? Inciting a riot is against the law - what about inciting a hate crime? Jerry Falwell, say, or some evangelical minister, you know, preaches on 'the wages of sin is death' and homosexuality is a sin! - Interprets the bible that way - is that minister complicit if a parishioner goes out and murders someone because of [his or her] orientation? (May 13, 2002)

Randy Byrd is a Republican analyst, the former Fifth District Republican Chairman, and a publisher based in Charlottesville.