Hate Crimes

Throughout the early '90s, state legislatures across the country began to adopt new measures seeking to outlaw what are referred to as “hate crimes.” A typical hate crime statute increases the severity of punishment for a crime deemed to be motivated by prejudice against a victim's race, religion, ethnic origin, and, in some cases, sexual orientation. It is a crazy notion, I think, to make a crime category based on "intent". But this is the age of political correctness . I am not surprised that such things as "hate crime laws" exist.

The federal government has such laws too. Congress has just made an addition to federal "hate crime laws" that are already on the books, extending protection against hate crimes to homosexuals. I am all for protecting homosexuals from bigots and from crimes, but the idea that the reason for a crime makes a crime more or less severe is both false and contrary to fairness. By this reasoning, all crimes should have categories of penalties based on the motivation of the offender. For example, robbery should now be okay as long as the assailant is poor and hungry.

We have many laws now that cover all types of crime. Society can't legislate against what people "think" because of a "motive" for a crime. Most crimes stem from hatred of some kind, and all crime victims suffer equally regardless of intent of the criminal. Properly labeling something a 'hate crime' should be based on using common sense in the sentencing process, not be part of a specific and potentially never ending list that targets crimes toward a particular group of people.

I think hate crime charges detract from the original, far more heinous offense that was committed. Murder is murder, rape is rape, arson is arson, nothing more or less despite who or what the victim is. All the hate crime charges are is a way to further inflame public passion, something that has no place in an American court of law in the first place. But in this age sense is nonsense and reality not politically correct.