EDITORIAL: Bacon left on mosque’s doors highlights unequal protection of hate crime laws

The wrapping of raw bacon around the door handles of a Las Vegas mosque was a hateful act, but was it a crime?

A national Muslim organization thinks so, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation would seem to agree. Last week, following calls for prosecution from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the FBI announced it was offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for placing uncooked pork on the entrance of the Masjid-e-Tawheed mosque early Dec. 27.

The FBI's own news release says no one was harmed and that the mosque sustained no property damage. However, because the act was potentially offensive to Muslims and deemed an act of desecration by CAIR, authorities can pursue charges under hate crime statutes — even if no other criminal act took place.

That's because hate crime statutes punish people for the thoughts behind their offenses. Anyone who is motivated to do wrong based on a victim's race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion or other protected classification can face harsher sentencing.

The placement of raw bacon on the entrance of, say, a McDonald's restaurant would be a mere nuisance unworthy of police resources. But because the Muslim faith prohibits the consumption of pork products, authorities are treating what some might consider a prank as a federal crime.

However, the creation of special protections for special groups of people leads to unequal protection under the law — and uneven enforcement of hate crime laws based on the reactions of those who claim to be victims. Case in point: The serial disruptions of Catholic Masses in Las Vegas by a group that calls itself Koosha Las Vegas. As reported by the Review-Journal, the group storms churches, confronts parishioners and brazenly posts its intrusions on YouTube. "Pope is a Satan!" one man shouts. "Mary statue is a Satan!"

When asked whether Koosha Las Vegas is under investigation for possible hate crimes, an FBI spokeswoman said the agency "does not ordinarily confirm or deny the existence of an investigation." So why publicize the mosque inquiry but not the Mass disruptions, if that case is being investigated at all? The FBI wouldn't say.

What happened at the local mosque and at the Catholic churches was ugly and unwarranted. But existing laws that criminalize trespassing, violence, threats of violence, property destruction and other offenses are enough to investigate and punish wrongdoers. The scales of the U.S. justice system should not be tipped by special treatment.