HATE CRIMES: Stop teaching hate, homophobia kills....

[Hot Mega]

I dont like the hate crime law for 3 reasons.
Its illogical to create a double sentence or increased sentence
based on what the motivation may have been.
1st degree is 1st degree, involuntary manslaughter is involuntary manslaughter ect.

Clearly establishing a persons thoughts at the time of the murder is impossible.
And it is impossible to define. Dahmer for example killed mostly black gays> did he hate blacks? did he hate gays? Bundy killed white girls, did he hate whites? girls? . Colin ferguson killed only the whites on the train, did he hate whites?
And also it only applies to white defendants, which is completly discriminatory.

I'd feel that way no matter what color, religion or sexual preference i was

You don't have to necessarily divine what someone's thoughts were at some given point in time. What you can do is establish what their motivation for committing a crime is. Establishing motive or cause is accomplished by investigators in almost 100% of crimes.

In the cases where it's determined some specific animus toward race, religion, orientation, etc. was the overriding factor or motivation in why a crime occurred, "hate crime" charges are correspondingly and rightfully (IMO) leveled against the accused.

Can a person commit a crime against an individual or that individual's family because they hate that specific person or family? Yes.

Can a person commit a crime against an individual or that individual's family because they hate the specific group the person or family belongs to? Yes

Because the targeting of a group has a larger, more pervasive impact on society it's been determined that one should be more severely punished.

Now that's the case for "hate crimes" if you disagree then you disagree. But bogus, specious arguments claiming we can't know the thoughts (which really amount to the motivations) of the accused is silly. It's done all the time.