Free Speech? Not In Minneapolis! by John Hinderaker. The future the PC crew would force on all of us?

The City of Minneapolis has established a hot line to report speech and conduct that are deemed hateful. The city’s press release says:

Through its 311 service, the City of Minneapolis has opened a new hotline for reporting hate crimes, which are harassing behaviors motivated by prejudice.

That is wrong. “Harassing behaviors” may or may not be crimes; in many cases, depending on how the phrase is understood by people using the hot line, they probably aren’t.

The Director of Minneapolis’s Department of Civil Rights, Velma Korbel, explains the rationale behind the new reporting system:

Since the general election, many of us have experienced, witnessed firsthand or heard of actions of: racism, xenophobia, sexism and bigotry directed at people here and in cities across the United States.

So this is all about the “Resistance” to President Trump’s administration, a fact that is reaffirmed in the next paragraph.

In no uncertain terms, hate-motivated speech and actions have no place in Minneapolis nor will they be tolerated. Activities such as these are against the law.

No, they aren’t. “Hate speech” is, in general, protected by the First Amendment, as the Supreme Court reaffirmed only days ago. And what “hate-motivated speech” might be, I have no idea. Likewise with “hate-motivated actions.” If such actions are crimes, they certainly are against the law; if they are not crimes, they are not against the law. There is no general prohibition against saying or doing things that are motivated by hate, nor can there be.

No one is above the law.

An ironic observation, given that in this instance the City attempts to place itself (and perhaps certain categories of people expected to use the hot line) above the law.

The new left now wish to criminalize any opposition PC. They are doing it via regulations made by bureaucrats and by sheer assertion (“Activities such as these are against the law.”), rather than by laws made by our democratically elected representatives. The PC crew’s authoritarian streak is getting wider. This will only stand if we let them get away with it.

Under the system being tried on by the City of Minneapolis, the PC crew define what “hate” is and then say “hateful” speech or action is criminal. They are the boss, and free speech is eliminated. On whose authority? Who voted them as boss?