Why do we care why some thug beats up your friend? If they kill or injur your brother does it really matter that it was done because he disliked him personally or because of his race or sexual orientation?
Hate crime laws have been adopted at the federal and state levels that increase the penalties for crimes committed when the motivation is race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability of the victim.
The Federal Hate Crimes Bill, which is also known as the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, is named in honor of Matthew Shepard, a gay college freshman, who was beaten into a coma in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming because of his sexual orientation. He died five days later, and since then, his tragic death has been used as an example of the crimes hate can cause. It was passed in 2007. Most states had this kind of legislation in effect prior to the federal legislation.
If you assault me should you serve less time in prison because I am not gay and am not a minority? Not if it is my broken scull.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) pointed out that, “Those who perpetrated the Shepard murder in Wyoming are already sentenced to death or in prison for their lives under state law…There is no evidence that state governments are incapable of prosecuting these crimes or that they are failing to do so.”
Proponents of the bill claim that hate crimes deserve a higher punishment because they not only victimize one individual, but an entire group of people based on their beliefs.
Here is how we should handle hate crime? Let’s hit people with the full weight of the laws that are already on the books. We don't need a special law that says you can't beat on gay people for being gay, because it's already illegal to beat on people period.
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