The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the hate crimes law enacted in the days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968.
With expected passage by the Senate, federal prosecutors will for the first time be able to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays.
I hate “Hate Crimes,” but I don’t really get the additional punishment for same. If someone assaults/kills another individual, well, there’s usually some (unreasonable) reason for same. Prosecute the infraction. (Update 10/15/2009: The first four words of my graph may be ambiguous. What I was trying to say is that I hate any crime that is caused by hate/prejudice/intolerance etc.)
Maybe this new push is just extending current law to fall under federal statues (“federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation”), but, why?
Is killing someone because they are gay worse than killing someone because they stole your girlfriend?
Punish the crime – not the prejudice that may have led one to commit the crime.
If you commit an armed robbery because your family is starving, you’ll still get the same sentence – if convicted – than if you committed an armed robbery so you could buy an Xbox 360. It’s an armed robbery. Ditto if you committed the crime to feed/get Xbox 360 for your gay lover…
Committing a crime against someone because he/she is gay/minority/whatever is reprehensible.
Committing a crime against someone for whatever reason is reprehensible.
Why does the former require a stiffer penalty than the latter?
Is, for example, a gay life > a straight life (hate crimes give – potentially – greater punishments to killers of gays than non-gays)? To me, either loss is tragic.
Full disclosure: I’m a straight Caucasian male (with no real religious affinity), so I’m pretty safe hate-crime wise.
Yet I have no problems with those who are not what I am.
And I hate the intolerance in this country for those who are different from the mainstream. I dislike the thoughts/beliefs they hold, but – to me – these are not grounds for arrest or additional punishment if found guilty of a crime.
Hate Crime laws help perpetuate the segregation of minorities (religious/sexual-orientation/racial), rather than help trying to meld the pot. They are somehow “different” (hey, different punishment for same crime!).
Punish the crime – not the “why.”