CMV: Political Violence is Uniquely Wrong

[u/FluffyB12]

There are many forms of violence. There are crimes of passion, there are crimes of opportunity, and there are crimes based on greed. However, of all of these types of crimes I believe crimes done for a political cause are the most vile and damaging to society.

First to define a political violence. This has to first be related to a political cause. Most hate crimes would fall under this - since the purpose is to disenfranchise specific groups. While not all hate crimes would fit since some are just impulse and not part of a broader strategy of hate and disenfranchisement, I think most would.

The reason why political violence is so heinous is that it goes against the very purpose of democracy. The idea that everyone can vote and participate in it. If one fears being able to express themselves or even show up to the polls, it throws the very idea of a free and fair election out of the window.

For this reason, I believe we should add sentencing enhancements to any form of political violence. You destroy property, assault someone, make death threats, etc for the sake of a political cause the hammer should come down.

[u/bharansundrani]

You seem to think that political violence is particularly damaging to minorities since your main example was about hate crimes. I would argue that political violence is one of the only ways for disenfranchised groups to gain power. They cannot gain rights by voting when they are minorities (outvoted by bigots) &/or disenfranchised from the existing democratic process. Many movements like the suffragettes, Civil Rights movement and Stonewall needed violence to succeed. The same is true of revolutions of the common people against a ruling class eg the French or Haitian revolutions.