This one is unbelievable. A group of Amish citizens had a falling out with another group of Amish citizens. The first group “attacked” the second group and committed the heinous crime of cutting their hair and beards.
Some may laugh at this, I don’t. It was an assault and religiously degrading. Police dutifully investigated. This is where it gets unbelievable.
The U.S. Justice Department…the same one that is too busy to prosecute even one gun-related crime in Chicago…charges the people who did the hair and beard cutting with a hate crime. For those non-lawyers reading this, Congress can’t just say an assault, even a hate crime, is a violation of Federal law. They have to find something in the Constitution (you know, that document that gives only certain, enumerated powers to the Federal government) to authorize such a prosecution.
Well, as usual they found it. The Commerce Clause. The U.S. Justice Department determined that because the scissors used to cut the hair were bought in one State and used in another to commit a crime, the Federal Court had jurisdiction. Voilà! A Federal hate crime prosecution.
It gets more absurd. The hair-cutters were convicted and sentenced to up to 15 years in Federal prison. 15 years. For cutting someone’s hair and beard.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree something should be done to punish the offenders and keep this from happening again. How about a fine, community service, maybe probation. But no, not our too-busy-to-put-violent-offenders-in-prison U.S. Attorneys. They dig their heals in when confronted with despicable, heinous crimes like hair-cutting (not that they don’t shave every day and get regular haircuts).
So now we have multiple people, men and women, in Federal prison for terms that exceed some I have seen for murderers, for cutting the hair and beards of others they have a religious disagreement with.
Absurd. Unbelievable. Floyd the Barber better watch out.