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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

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The point is that "hate crime" in and of itself is a crime of thought. If you can prove in court one is a racist it goes toward motive and proving the murder, the same if you can show in court he has a history of mugging, then that would be the motive and goes toward proving the murder. I don't agree with some one being charged with a thought nor is it consistent with the constitution.

They arent being charged with a thought crime... there is an act there. The hate laws allowed the Federal government to get involved before the trial, instead of having to wait to be asked, or wait for the appeal case. It prevents the good ole boy network from being effective in allowing racially motivated crimes from being swept under the rug.

Locals will claim... boys will be boys... and they did, alot. Once tried, the fed government's hands were tied. Now, the tables are turned on such crimes. Much, much harder to hide behind a badge who is related to you.

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A case in March 1991 involved the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, California,. After the police officers who allegedly beat Mr. King were acquitted in a state court trial, terrible riots broke out in South Central Los Angeles in protest. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney then prosecuted the officers under a federal criminal civil rights statute. The officers were convicted of violating Mr. King's civil rights.

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

You mean the case where the officers got off... until the government stepped in?

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A case in March 1991 involved the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, California,. After the police officers who allegedly beat Mr. King were acquitted in a state court trial, terrible riots broke out in South Central Los Angeles in protest. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney then prosecuted the officers under a federal criminal civil rights statute. The officers were convicted of violating Mr. King's civil rights.

Key Federal Hate Crime Statutes:

Federally Protected Activities, 18 U.S.C. § 245. The portion of Section 245 of Title 18 which is primarily enforced by the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division makes it unlawful to willfully injure, intimidate or interfere with any person, or to attempt to do so, by force or threat of force, BECAUSE OF that other person’s race, color, religion or national origin AND BECAUSE he or she is, or has been, engaging in one of six specifically-enumerated activities:

-Enrolling in or attending a public school or public college; Participating in or enjoying a benefit, service, privilege, program, facility or activity provided or administered by a state or local government;

-Applying for or enjoying employment, or any perquisite thereof, by a private or state employer;

-Serving as a juror or prospective juror in state court;

-Traveling in or using any facility of interstate commerce or transportation;

-Enjoying the services of a place of public accommodation, including a hotel, motels, restaurant, bar, gas station, theater, concert hall, sports arena, or other place of entertainment.

A violation of this statute is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison, unless the offense involves an aggravating circumstance. If the crime results in bodily injury or involves a dangerous weapon or fire, the crime is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; if the offense results in death or involves kidnapping or aggravated sexual abuse, the crime is punishable by any term up to life, or by the death penalty.

Recent Hate Crime and Race-Related Prosecutions:

-Some recent examples of cases prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section include:

-Conspiracy to threaten, assault, and murder African-Americans. United States v. Saldana: Four members of a violent Latino street gang in Los Angeles were convicted of participating in a conspiracy aimed at threatening, assaulting, and murdering African-Americans in a neighborhood claimed by the defendants’ gang. Three of the defendants were also charged with, and convicted of, a federal hate crime violation stemming from the murder of an African American who was killed because he was black and because he was using a public street claimed by the gang. All four defendants received life sentences. In recognition of the success in this case, the prosecution team was awarded the Anti-Defamation League’s 2007 Sherwood Prize for Combating Hate and the International Association of Chiefs of Police 2007 Civil Rights Award.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/November/07_crt_921.html

Hate crime laws kicked up t he punishments and made it possible for feds to step in with their own charges instead of having to rely upon local government.

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ORIGINAL: LafayetteLady

And isn't playing the blame game just what you are doing? Yes, racism exists. It clearly exists in YOUR statements.

That's the point. Hatred isn't restricted to one group no matter how much minorities try to claim it is.

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A black guy mugs a white woman and some radical like Al Sharpton will just about try to justify the guy's actions, blaming slavery (that he has to go back more than 3 generations in his family too find), the 'white' government, etc.

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Seriously, as long as you want to scream that you are different and then demand to be treated differently with things like affirmative action, YOU and others like you, regardless of race or ethnicity (and yes they are different, do you even know your ethnicity or what country your family originates from? Here's a hint you bigoted little snot, africa is a continent not a country, like Europe and North America).

When you get that chip off your shoulder and stop thinking whites took all your options, then you might grow up and see how you are just as racist as those you throw the term at.

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I don't have an issue with most of that. The hate crime laws were enacted to combat state kangaroo courts. I get it but to enhance punishments or enhance charges because of the motive is where I have the problem.  Murder is murder. Why should or could some one for example get a life sentence for murder because they hated white guys as apposed to 20 years for the same crime because they wanted your money ?  I don't have a problem calling them hate crime statutes either, just the notion that you can enhance the penalties or charges because they hated a race or some such thing. 

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ORIGINAL: tolovetolaugh

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ORIGINAL: torturerofwomen2

I am tired of everytime some one has an opinion they are labled racist, so shut the hell up.

I have actually been pleasantly surprised at my ability to discuss this on here. Minus a certain wack job on my side, and a few flawed arguments on my oppositions () It's been great and fairly civil compared to most of what I have seen on the P and R forums.

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ORIGINAL: LafayetteLady

And isn't playing the blame game just what you are doing? Yes, racism exists. It clearly exists in YOUR statements.

That's the point. Hatred isn't restricted to one group no matter how much minorities try to claim it is.

A black guy mugs a white woman and some radical like Al Sharpton will just about try to justify the guy's actions, blaming slavery (that he has to go back more than 3 generations in his family too find), the 'white' government, etc.

DUDE, have to taken a look at our president? He denies his WHITE heritage, instead looking to the black father who was barely part of his life. But yep, the government is all for the whites. The Civils Rights Act, hate crime enhancments, affirmative action were all to benefit the whites.

Seriously, as long as you want to scream that you are different and then demand to be treated differently with things like affirmative action, YOU and others like you, regardless of race or ethnicity (and yes they are different, do you even know your ethnicity or what country your family originates from? Here's a hint you bigoted little snot, africa is a continent not a country, like Europe and North America).

When you get that chip off your shoulder and stop thinking whites took all your options, then you might grow up and see how you are just as racist as those you throw the term at.

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ORIGINAL: Moonhead

While you're wronging perhaps you should apologise for lying and bullshitting about Orson Welles' disclaimer.

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ORIGINAL: Moonhead

I wasn't wrong. Still, you're not a man with the ability to pay any attention to facts, I suppose.

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WRONG

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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

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ORIGINAL: Moonhead

I wasn't wrong. Still, you're not a man with the ability to pay any attention to facts, I suppose.

WRONG

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ORIGINAL: Orson Welles
This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that
"The War of The Worlds" has no further significance than as the holiday
offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre's own radio version of
dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo!
Starting now, we couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden
gates by tomorrow night... so we did the best next thing. We annihilated the
world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the C. B. S. You will be
relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn't mean it, and that both institutions are
still open for business.
So goodbye everybody, and remember please, for the next day or so, the
terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of
your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell
rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian... it's Halloween.

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

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WRONG

You offer so much intellectual information.

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ORIGINAL: lovmuffi

The hate crime laws were enacted to combat state kangaroo courts. I get it but to enhance punishments or enhance charges because of the motive is where I have the problem.  Murder is murder. Why should or could some one for example get a life sentence for murder because they hated white guys as apposed to 20 years for the same crime because they wanted your money ?  I don't have a problem calling them hate crime statutes either, just the notion that you can enhance the penalties or charges because they hated a race or some such thing. 

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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

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WRONG

You offer so much intellectual information.

WRONG

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ORIGINAL: rulemylife

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ORIGINAL: lovmuffi

The hate crime laws were enacted to combat state kangaroo courts. I get it but to enhance punishments or enhance charges because of the motive is where I have the problem.  Murder is murder. Why should or could some one for example get a life sentence for murder because they hated white guys as apposed to 20 years for the same crime because they wanted your money ?  I don't have a problem calling them hate crime statutes either, just the notion that you can enhance the penalties or charges because they hated a race or some such thing. 

No, they were not enacted for that.

The case in in question here is a prime example of why hate crime laws were established.

These kids went looking for a black person to hurt. He was a complete stranger to them and he ended up dead.