Lets say a young man" (John) gets jumped and hospitalized by some guys, the whole time the guys beating him up never say one word. The guys get brought up on assault charges convicted and do some time.
Now a young man (Jessie) gets beat up and it's clear that his attackers don't like gay people, they yell out slanders and put this guy in the hospital. They get convicted of a hate crime and are put away longer then the guys who hospitalized John. Why?
Aren't both of these guys in the Hospital? Don't both of them have grieving families? Is Jessie's pain considered worse than John due to Jessie's orientation? Or are they 2 human being that had thier rights violated, shouldn't the punishment be the same then?
Answers:
Since Jessie apparently only was attacked because of his sexual orientation, he had rights violated that John did not. Americans are free to lives their lives without being punished for who they are, as long as who they are is not harming anyone else. Jessie's right to live freely was taken away by the attack. We don't know what the reason was for John's beating, but it was apparently unrelated to his group status. That is the additional violation that leads to the increased punishment. Had Jessie been beaten for reasons other than his homosexuality, or the attackers used just words and no violence, there would be no hate crime here.
BTW, I am a liberal and I also feel that hate crimes laws are inappropriate.
No...it does not make one person more important than another...it makes a crime worse than another.
A white person attacks a black person based on race...hate crime
A black person attacks a white person based on race...hate crime
There is no insinuation that one life is more important than another...are we really saying we want to protect the right to attack people because they are a certain race, gender, or religion"?
I agree but there is a variable in the 2 scenarios ONLY the second involves HATE speech followed by actions. Thus that is a different crime with different punishment.
Hate crime legislation is utterly ridiculous. It's too close to "thought crime" for my taste. It's applied inconsistantly and does not deter hate.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
It's not that one of the two citizens is more important, but that the victims are different. In the first case, the only people hurt are the actual victim and his family and friends. In the second, not only his family and friends, but the gay community is harmed. The whole point behind hate crime is to instill fear in other, similar people, to make them want to hide who they are or just simply move away from the area. It is akin to burning a cross on a black family's front lawn. You can say that's just vandalism, but it clearly goes much further beyond that.
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