Summary
Australia has enacted strict anti-hate crime laws, mandating jail sentences for public Nazi salutes and other hate-related offenses.
Punishments range from 12 months for lesser crimes to six years for terrorism-related hate offenses.
The legislation follows a rise in antisemitic attacks, including synagogue vandalism and a foiled bombing plot targeting Jewish Australians.
The law builds on state-level bans, with prior convictions for individuals performing Nazi salutes in public spaces, including at sporting events and courthouses.
Do you think the same about any traffic violation or all fines in general? We should throw people in the jail for a year, mnimum, because otherwise it’s just a tax on not being rich enough for the crime?
Come on now. I’m all for having tougher sentences on the high end for hate related offenses, but a mandatory minimum being year in jail for any such offense, even some dipshit doing a Nazi salute and nothing is else, is just too much. It’s like said, dipshit behaviour but hardly worth a year in jail. And it probably won’t solve the issue anyway. Just putting people in jail seldom does imo. Yanks have already tried that.
Not all “legal offenses” are crimes. Legal systems have categories for a reason. Got caught loitering in the act? That can quite simply be solved by just have you go back to pick up your trash. Some things should not be punishable with jail, some others should, nazism clearly belongs in the later category.
Lemme let you in on a secret:
Yanks don’t send people to jail to “solve crime”. They don’t want to “solve crime”. They fill jails to have a cheap abusable workforce. They’ve even come out saying it openly out loud. Why do you think it’s black people or homeless people 90% of the time?
If that’s what you feel makes a difference for my argument, let me ask:
“Do you think the same about any crime in general? We should throw people in the jail for a year, mnimum, because otherwise it’s just a tax on not being rich enough for the crime?”
Do you think people behind this think this will solve hate? I just don’t think this sort of mandatory jail sentences will do any good. To me it makes a lot more sense to have a wider scale in punishments. This just feels like it’s reacting a bit panicky into what’s happening in the world with more to soothe people’s minds than to actually do something meaningful to change things.