Minnesota lawmakers are mulling a change to state law that would log alleged bias incidents even when they aren’t considered a crime — leading one lawmaker to say the plan would create a “thoughtcrime” database.
A bill pitched in January would allow people to report perceived bias-related incidents such as alleged slurs and verbal attacks that would fall outside the hate crimes compiled annually by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, according to the St. Cloud Times.
Each alleged incident would include information about the perceived offender and victim “relevant to that bias,” according to the law.
“It’s a very insidious and conniving way to get the camel’s nose under the tent of expanding the scope of government scrutiny of speech beyond crimes and assault,” Republican state Rep. Walter Hudson told Fox News Digital of the bill, which has a companion in the state Senate.
Hudson said he worried that the language of the bill, which encompasses not just race but also gender identity and gender expression, is overbroad and could ultimately impinge upon religious liberty. He noted that he found the original draft of the bill “problematic,” but noted the language of the bill has been amended to include “incidents” that do not reach the level of crimes.
