The phrase “hate crime” has always made me uncomfortable in a very Orwellian way, and the feeling has returned in full force in light of the recent events at the Holocaust Museum. Hate is not a crime. Hate, like love or fear or anger, is an emotional response. Hate cannot be policed. Hate cannot be arrested. Hate cannot be punished by the law.

Oh but wait. It can be. In fact, there are several documented instances in which those accused of hate crimes have received stronger punishments than those who have committed comparable “non-hate” crimes. What I do not understand is this: Are not all criminal acts driven by some kind of emotional urge? Lust for money, lust for power, lust for control, crime of passion, crime of regret, crime of greed, crime of hate. How is murdering your neighbor because you hate him for being Black any different than murdering your neighbor because you hate him for having a Lexus and a Rolex? How is raping the woman at the bar who refused to dance with you because she is gay any different than raping the woman at the bar who wouldn’t talk to you even though she was dressed “provocatively”? Isn’t the end result the same in both scenarios? One crime was committed under the emotion of hate, the other under the emotion of greed and/or lust. Should one receive a sterner punishment than the other?

I think it is incendiary and intolerable to allow any government entity to label an emotion as a crime. This is as close to the Thought Police as we have ever come in this country…and that’s saying a lot considering who our last president was. Policing who we hate is as dangerous as policing who we love. Hate is not the crime. The action inspired by hate is what should be policed. But how is the policing of a premeditated “hate crime” any different from the policing of any other premeditated crime? It’s not, and it shouldn’t be. As disdainful as groups like the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Nation are, they are protected under the First Amendment. Their hatred is bilious and corrosive to their members…but what they believe, what they feel is not a crime. It only becomes a crime when they act on it, and only then can the law step in.

Of course, that begs the question, how can we step in before the hatred leads to a criminal act, as it did at the Holocaust Museum. You want to stop “hate” crimes? It’s the same as stopping any crime. Try investing less money into prisons and more into schools. Try spending less time writing bills to police emotions and more time writing bills to increase funding to afterschool programs, accessible housing, improved community facilities, access to suitable employment and the training to perform these jobs. Try spending less time feeding the emotional blood lust and more time feeding the intellect