Hate Hotline Puts Speech on Hold
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David Harsanyi, Denver Post, May 15, 2006
There’s a famous joke that goes like this:
What’s the difference between a Rottweiler and a Jewish mother? Eventually, the Rottweiler lets go.
Now, some Jews may find that joke offensive. I don’t. But if you’re insulted, and you live in Boulder, you’re in luck. Soon enough, you may be able to report me to the authorities.
Tuesday, the Boulder City Council will take up the matter of allocating public funding for a “hate hotline,” which would give residents an opportunity to report incidents in which Boulderites use tactless language.
“Our concern—and there are many—is that there is no confidentiality, no legal confidentiality,” explains Judd Golden, chairman of the Boulder American Civil Liberties Union, which has not yet taken an official position on the hate-line. “So it’s potentially chilling if people think they are providing this information in confidence and then that information were provided to the government or the government sought access to it. That would chill free speech.”
Golden says the agenda item on the hotline is “extensive” and a “real dilemma” for the ACLU. There are some very “broad standards” laid out in the resolution.
There is, for instance, the policy statement condemning the usual individual or collective acts of racism and bigotry. Great. But it also condemns those who attack “personal beliefs and values.”
“Well, for the ACLU, that goes over the line,” Golden says. “You can object to free speech just because someone is a Republican or a Democrat.”
{snip}
The council should realize, however ugly it may be, Americans still have the constitutional right to be racist, homophobic, Jew-hating or even to make bad jokes—as anyone who’s heard the one about the redneck who invented the ejection seat on the helicopter can tell you.
{snip}
(Posted on May 16, 2006)