Re: Wow
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Hate crimes should be punished more harshly because of the thoughts that motivated the crime: specifically, a hatred toward an entire class of people, regardless of any actions that specific victim did or didn't do. Hate crimes, therefore, affect the entire class of people that was subject to the hate. If I kill a black man because he took my seat at a bar, then that is not (necessarily) a hate crime. If I kill him while shouting racial slurs at him, and have voiced my bigotry at other times, it probably is. In other words, had it been a white person that took my seat, I would have let it go, or asked him to get up. Because it was a black guy, I killed him. I was motivated by my hatred of a class -- black people. The entire black community will feel victimized, as they should, since now they have to fear similar acts of violence toward them just for being black.
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I was going to write a long post about how strongly I disagreed with this, but while I was typing it I realized that you had a strong point.
Violent crimes motivated by hate send a significant chill throughout the entire targeted group. There should be a significant punishment for this. It's clear to me that it's a form of terrorism, as are things like cross burnings.
I still feel that any hate motivated perpetrator is also inherently more dangerous than other criminals and so stiffer penalties should be applied for this reason as well.
That said, I have a real problem with the case in the OP because insulting someone's religious values cannot be construed to imply a threat to the security of anyone.
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