December
15, 2004: Hate Crimes
By
The Diesel
Sacramento, CA
Every
day we hear of someone being beaten or property being vandalized as the result
of a Hate Crime. The Hate Crime has been given a special status that is different
than the Regular Crime. Hate Crimes are when a person acts hateful towards
another person because of their skin color, sexual preference, or gender.
The definition has been expanded to include crimes against people because
of their religion or their particular physical or mental disability. Regular
Crimes are when a person acts hateful towards another person because of anything
else. Those convicted of Hate Crimes receive penalties more severe than Regular
Crimes, even if the result of the crime was the same. If you commit a Regular
Crime, you receive regular punishment. The Hate Crime law is meant to deter
those who would commit a criminal act against a "protected" person.
Why does a person's motivation behind their criminal act determine the punishment they will receive? The law should be more deliberate in that if a person commits a crime they receive a very specific punishment regardless of who committed it, who they committed it against, and what their honest motivations were. The crime has been committed – let the punishment be severe and non-negotiable. The families of the victims do not grieve any less because their son was murdered for the money in his pocket instead of his (pick any color/gender/sexual preference) and the victim is not any less dead.
Hate Crime laws are slanted towards establishing legally favored groups by punishing the unfavored groups with stiffer penalties for harming the favored groups, and not vise versa. Instead of increasing the penalties for all criminal acts equally, the law has simply changed the focus of criminals onto another demographic that is more socially acceptable to rape, rob, mug, and murder with less concern for the penalty. If we are to uber-penalize criminals based on their motivations, why are Hate Crimes not allowed for like persons who don't like who they are? If a person (pick any color/gender/sexual preference) were to kill a similar person just because they didn't like the person’s (pick any color/gender/sexual preference) they would not be convicted of a Hate Crime, despite the fact that their motivations were not any different than that of a non-protected group criminal. Shouldn't we be concerned with their motivation since it involved the harming of a protected citizen?
Laws should protect every citizen equally regardless of skin color, sexual preference, gender, religion, or whatever. With the Hate Crimes legislation the crime is no longer the main issue, the motivation of the criminal is. If you’re a criminal with any common sense, just tell the cops you killed the Chinese lesbian at the Klan rally because you were upset that the Yankees didn't win the World Series. You will receive a softer penalty and you should be out before your cross stops smoldering.