Zonie63
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Joined: 4/25/2011
From: The Old Pueblo
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quote:
ORIGINAL: njlauren
The reason we have hate crimes legislation is all about motive, but it also is about justice. You might think we are all equal under the law, but in practice that is not true. If you are an LGBT person who has been assaulted or raped, and you have a bible thumping loser of a judge like Roy Moore in Alabama (he of 10 commandments fame, ironically the person claiming those are the basis of law...), you can be pretty sure that the perp will get a slap on the wrist, because Moore is like far too many of the branch of religion known as the religiouso moronicus, that someone who they don't like doesn't deserve to see justice. With death penalty cases, a black person convicted of killing a white victim is some ridiculous percentage likely to get the death penalty over a white killing a black. Black kid gets accused of rape, they throw the book at him, white kid (especially a football player) rapes some girl, and the DA and cops do everything they can to try and make sure they aren't charged........if Justice were truly equal in this country, then yeah, this would be great, but the reality is it isn't, and hate crimes legislation, like federal violation of civil rights legislation in the 60's, was designed to try and make sure there is justice. Not long ago, I think it may have been California in some dipshit town in the 'conservative' part of the state, some low life raped a lesbian woman, claiming he would 'cure her'.....guy was some sort of local hero, had been big football hero, etc........the DA's office and the judge wanted to cut the guy a deal to get him something like a couple of months in jail, plus some probation, when normally a rape case of this nature would carry a pretty heavy penalty (I think it was 5-10).....but because of the hate crime laws , they couldn't do that..
This is an interesting dimension to hate crime legislation which I had not previously considered. From what you're saying here, it seems that part of it is motivated due to an apparent lack of trust in lawyers and judges in being able to mete out appropriate punishments that fit the crime. Some have criticized hate crime legislation on the basis that it takes away discretionary power from the judges in being able to examine whatever aggravating factors may or may not exist in a given case. Every case is different, so it could be argued that judges need to have some latitude in evaluating each individual case on its own merits.
But, if we can't trust judges to use their own judgment, then that may be a sign of a deeper problem.
I agree that it's important to consider motives for a crime, and any aggravating factors and/or crimes which are particularly heinous should be taken into consideration when determining what sort of punishment is "fit." There's also a matter of how much damage may be caused from a given crime. Hate crimes might be seen as causing greater damage to society at large than what might ordinarily happen with an individual committing a crime against another individual, whether at random or due to some personal dispute that may not involve anyone else in the community. But if someone is targeted just because they're part of a group (whether religious, racial, gender, orientation, etc.), then that might create fear within an entire group of people and could sow dissension and discord in a community if left unchecked.
A lot of it is also due to our history, and there's concern that if society doesn't clamp down hard on hate crimes, they could spread and get out of hand. I can understand that, but I'll also concede that there may be some level of political expediency behind hate crime legislation, and I get the idea that justice should be blind. I'm not sure how practical it will be over the long run, though. It seems to have become a political football, and perhaps there might be another angle from which to approach this issue. There may be deeper issues that we'll have to grapple with, and I get the sense that hate crime legislation is someone's idea of a "quick fix" to a deep-rooted problem. I can get the logic behind it, although I can also understand those who have misgivings about where it might lead or whether it will even work at all.
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RE: Knockout game. Hate crime? - 
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