Is it too late to prosecute Andres Serrano?*

Take a book that doesn’t belong to you and toss it in the toilet, and you’ve just committed vandalism (and possibly theft). Unless, of course, the book in question is the Koran:

NEW YORK (AP) _ A 23-year-old man was arrested Friday on hate-crime charges after he threw a Quran in a toilet at Pace University on two separate occasions, police said.

It’s my understanding that the book didn’t belong to Stanislav Shmulevich, and neither did the toilet. He destroyed Pace University property (the book) and no doubt caused a minor headache for whatever janitor later had to retrieve the book. With that in mind, he’s committed vandalism and should be punished for it. Does it really matter why he tossed the book in the toilet, or that the book happens to be considered sacred by some individuals at the school?

Imagine that this same situation had played out the same way, except that the criminal was a Muslim who had tossed a Bible in the toilet or a Christian who flushed a Torah. Would the University have turned the matter over to the police? Would it have been treated as a “hate crime”? Hate crime laws say to citizens that not everyone is equal — attacking someone who happens to be a member of a “protected class” is worse than attacking someone who is not.

The police officers and prosecutors who decided that this case was something more serious than simple vandalism, as well as the Pace University officials who felt the need to push for this to be considered more than it is, should be ashamed of themselves. Vandalism is a crime, and should be treated as such, but the issue shouldn’t be blown out of proportion simply because the vandalism happened to be offensive.

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* That’s a joke, incidentally. I think Serrano’s work is disgusting and insulting, but I accept that this country has a freedom of expression that allows such things. I’m not so keen on the idea of his work being subsidized by the federal government, though.