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Combating “Hate”: The Trojan Horse for Precrime
Philip K. Dick’s 1956 novella The Minority Report created “precrime,” the clairvoyant foreknowledge of criminal activity as forecast by mutant “precogs.” The book was a dystopian nightmare, but a 2015 Fox television series transforms the story into one in which a precog works with a cop and shows that data is actually effective at predicting future crime.
Canada just tried to enact a precrime law along the lines of the 2015 show, but it was panned about as much as the television series. Ottawa’s now-tabled online harms bill included a provision to impose house arrest on someone who is feared to commit a hate crime in the future. From The Globe and Mail:
While the Canadian bill is shelved for now, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it resurface after some future hate crime. I wonder if this is where burgeoning “anti-hate” programs across the US are headed. The Canadian bill would have also allowed “people to file complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission over what they perceive as hate speech online – including, for example, off-colour jokes by comedians.”
There are now programs in multiple US states to do just that – encourage people to snitch on anyone doing anything perceived as “hateful.”
The 2021 federal COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act began to dole out money to states to help them respond to hate incidents. Oregon now has its Bias Response Hotline to track “bias incidents.” In December of 2022, New York launched its Hate and Bias Prevention Unit. Maryland, too, has its system – its hate incidents examples include “offensive jokes” and “malicious complaints of smell or noise.”
More:
Philip K. Dick’s 1956 novella The Minority Report created “precrime,” the clairvoyant foreknowledge of criminal activity as forecast by mutant “precogs.” The book was a dystopian nightmare, but a 2015 Fox television series transforms the story into one in which a precog works with a cop and shows that data is actually effective at predicting future crime.
Canada just tried to enact a precrime law along the lines of the 2015 show, but it was panned about as much as the television series. Ottawa’s now-tabled online harms bill included a provision to impose house arrest on someone who is feared to commit a hate crime in the future. From The Globe and Mail:
While the Canadian bill is shelved for now, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it resurface after some future hate crime. I wonder if this is where burgeoning “anti-hate” programs across the US are headed. The Canadian bill would have also allowed “people to file complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission over what they perceive as hate speech online – including, for example, off-colour jokes by comedians.”
There are now programs in multiple US states to do just that – encourage people to snitch on anyone doing anything perceived as “hateful.”
The 2021 federal COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act began to dole out money to states to help them respond to hate incidents. Oregon now has its Bias Response Hotline to track “bias incidents.” In December of 2022, New York launched its Hate and Bias Prevention Unit. Maryland, too, has its system – its hate incidents examples include “offensive jokes” and “malicious complaints of smell or noise.”
More:
Combating “Hate”: The Trojan Horse for Precrime | naked capitalism
Canada tables a pre-hate-crime bill, but why are US states institutionalizing programs to collect data on all types of hate “incidents"?