Should a company be forced to hire a convicted child rapist and murderer?
WASHINGTON, DC -- If you refuse to give a job to a convicted child rapist and murderer nicknamed the "Halloween Killer," are you guilty of illegal discrimination?
That's the question currently being debated in Wisconsin -- and it shows just how ridiculous the government's anti-discrimination laws have become, the Libertarian Party said today.
"When it's against the law to discriminate against a human monster like the Halloween Killer, then the law itself has become a crime," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. "In an effort to stop discrimination, these laws discriminate against good sense, public safety, and the security of our children."
Within the next few weeks, Gerald Turner, who brutally raped and killed a 9-year-old girl after abducting her while she was trick-or-treating, will get a hearing before an administrative law judge in Wisconsin.
At issue: Whether a waste management center broke the state's anti-discrimination law by refusing to hire the Halloween Killer, who was recently released after serving 19 years in prison. The company argued that since students and boy scouts regularly tour the plant, hiring a child rapist was too dangerous.
A state investigator disagreed, and said there was enough evidence of "discrimination" to warrant a hearing. Wisconsin is one of 10 states that makes it illegal to even consider the criminal background of potential employees when hiring (unless the crime is substantially related to the job).
At the national level, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has also ruled that refusing to hire people with criminal records is a violation of federal civil rights laws. The EEOC once filed a lawsuit, for example, against a trucking company that declined to hire people who had been convicted of larceny.
But such anti-discrimination laws not only violate the right of free association and the responsibility of companies to make sensible business decisions -- they also place innocent people at risk, said Dasbach.
"Something is profoundly wrong when the Halloween Killer has the right to demand a job, but private businesses don't have the right to protect their employees and visiting children against a savage child rapist and murderer," he said. "Why does a child rapist have more rights than a law-abiding business?"
The way to resolve the case of the Halloween Killer, said Dasbach, is not to tinker with anti-discrimination laws, or make an exception for child rapists -- the solution is to abolish them entirely.
"Libertarians don't argue with the benevolent intent of such laws," he said. "But when you give the government the power to do a good thing, like preventing racists from discriminating against African-Americans, you also give it the power to do a bad thing, like expose innocent children to the Halloween Killer."
Dasbach acknowledged that advocating an end to anti-discrimination laws makes Libertarians susceptible to charges of racism. But the exact opposite is true, he said.
"Libertarians tend to be very tolerant, because we recognize that every person (no matter how different) has the exact same rights we do," he said. "However, we also understand that the only way to create a truly tolerant society -- with opportunity for all -- is by trusting Americans to do the decent thing, and giving them the freedom to do what is right."
A side benefit of such Libertarian-style tolerance, said Dasbach, is that the government would cease spending tax dollars to decide if private businesses should be forced to hire child rapists and murderers.
And for any politicians who are concerned about potential "discrimination" against monsters like the Halloween Killer, Dasbach said he has a suggestion: "If you think the Halloween Killer deserves a job, hire him to work in your own office. Just don't force other Americans to take that same risk."
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