My only qualm with 'hate-crime' laws, are that they are never equally enforced. My idiot-Brother was a recent victim of a hate-crime, by several black youths, who used a couple BB pistols to shoot out his apartment's window, while yelling '*onky', 'cr*cker' '*hitey*, etc. When he called me first, and said he'd been shot at [Never tell your gun-nut friend that you've been shot at, for the love of ALL that is good with the world, BE SPECIFIC] and I showed up ready for the apocalypse, along with one of Lexington PD's finest, it struck me that; 'I'm better armed right now than this cop... AND I'm the only one wearing Kevlar...' ANYWAY, to make it a long-story short, the LPD sent a black cop, who when I inferred that the crime was a possible hate crime, mentioned "I see nothing here that suggests it was a hate crime, just an act of kids being kids". [Yes, I've written a complaint to the LPD]. The cop mentioned that because my brother is in the "vast majority", being white, christian, and in "good standing", there is no risk of the crime against him, being motivated by hate.
I'm all for hate crimes legislation, and laws, primarily because I'm openly gay, and have had my fair share of encounters with people of various racial backgrounds, who have targetted my sexuality, and wouldn't have confronted me at all if I wasn't openly gay; But the on caveat in the laws, is the under appreciation by figures of law enforcement for the all encompassing nature of hate-motivated crimes.
A person who kills another, because of some mental defect, or anger issues, is guilty of murder; a person who kills another because of a tangible racial, or other specific criminal reason, is guilty of a murder AND a hate crime. To me, Hate crime laws just add another element of prosecution, and penalty, to an existing penalty. But I've noticed that as oft the case, the hate crime is used IN PLACE OF the original crime. Granted, that a person has to have hate on their minds in the first place, to murder someone else, and that makes crimes like murder, in and of itself, a crime of hate; and therefore, all crimes are crimes of hate, in one form or another. But to target someone based solely on that victims race, sexuality, or birthplace, and to hurt them moreso because of it, well, that takes hate to a whole new level, and must be punished accordingly.
Though, myself, I see the debate of the others in the thread, mentioning that hate-crime laws come across as being 'thought-crime' laws, and a means down a slippery slope of potential, and future, crimes against our very thought, as being childish, and a theory that only children, and people who have wanton, and very real, thoughts of profound hate, and wish to one day, exercise said hate, without the fear of being tried for a hate crime.
Hate crime laws don't punish ANYONE for what they may or may not be thinking at any giving time, ONLY when they COMMIT a crime, MOTIVATED, by a hateful thought. For instance, and I'm using myself willingly as a subject in this quagmire of discussion; I often have THOUGHTS, of how amusing it'd be if all the religious and spiritual people of the world, was put on a lone land-mass, like say, Australia, and then have Nuclear warheads rained down on them, that the world would be a far, far better place. That's not an illegal thought, that's not a hateful [as defined by Kentucky, and Federal, laws, I know because I've got a very good lawyer friend who often thinks the same way too] thought, and is not punishable by any legal means to date. Now, if I was thinking how wonderful it would be if all the religious people in any given area, was slaughtered mercilessly, AND THEN went out and DID SUCH... That would be a crime of hate beyond just the crime of a murder spree, and would subject me to a hate crime, or multiple ones. Although personally, and IN MY OPINION of free thought, Hate crime laws shouldn't involve religion, unless it's to punish anyone who targets someone else, who is non-religious, but I digress.
