IMO hate crime classification is a joke. Ive been following it for many years and a certain fairly small ethic minority males commit many, many interracial murders where no other motive is apparent and they are never (well in my knowledge hardly ever) classified as hate.
A prime example was just a few weeks ago at a Burger King in New York. A young Latina was killed for no reason by a robber. He had the money and was leaving and actually turned around and casually shot her with no apparent motive. He was of a different race. This crime was discussed here extensively.
Another example was the LA furniture store stabbing….also just weeks ago.
The awful Wisconsin vehicular assault is another example.
I can’t even remember how many times I’ve seen this similar general scenario and never investigated as hate. Hate crime should be banished as a classification and all crimes should be treated fairly and equally for the deed not the motive or the racial/sexual/political identity of those involved.
My 2 cents worth.
another tidbit to note...
if you took all crime stats and removed one segment, crime in the US would be lower than most countries
that segment? blacks.
i hate to say it as it sounds racist... but the stats prove it.
you cannot address a problem if you cannot talk about the actual CAUSE of the problem. and it’s not interracial issues... as most violent crimes are black on black.
Agreed. As I was taught in law school, crime has 2 elements.
actus reus - the physical act
mens rea - the guilty mind. Note it DOES NOT MATTER if the perp committed the crime because they wanted the money or because the victim is of a different ethnic group they hate or if the victim wore purple shoes and the criminal just hated purple shoes. They are in every case, GUILTY! They did it. They intended to do it. They were acting of their own volition. The requirements of mens rea are met in all of the above scenarios.
So why are some categories punished more than others? Why is the crime worse if for example the criminal did it for reasons of race hate than for envy at the victims’ wealth?
Politics. That is the only answer. If those who write the law politically favor your group then you get special protections and there are increased punishments for attacking members of the group for their membership of the politically favored group than there would be for attacking others. Ridiculous. That IMO, violates equal justice and all “hate crimes” laws should be ruled unconstitutional for that reason. I argued this in law school almost 30 years ago. None of my professors was able to come up with a reasonable answer why this was anything other than politics and why it was not unequal justice.