Hate crime. These crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a social group. This as opposed to a polictically correct jerk that beats me up for no other reason than he can.
First, I defy you to find one case in the US when hate crime laws were enforced when a minority assaulted a white man because he was white or heterosexual. Prime example of selective prosecution.
More importantly it is an infringement of the first amendment. I can hate you and I can tell the world that I hate you and that is “generally” protected by the first amendment. But combining the first amendment protected statement that “I hate you because you are a Libertarian” with the violent assault is double trouble.
If I assault you for any reason I can be convicted of a felony and perhaps go to jail for a few years. Let’s say two years at the state pen.
But if I tell you that I hate you (because of the group you belong to) while I assault you then instead of going to prison for two years then I might be sent there for four to five years.
So in essence we are sending the politically correct assaulter to prison for two years and sending non-politically correct assaulter to prison for four years. The only difference is that the outspoken assaulter told his victim that he hated the victim (because the victim was a Libertarian) while he was beating him up.
If I am a victim I really don’t care what your motivations are when you are assaulting me. Don’t do it for any reason. And if you do beat me up then I don’t want you to get any special time off because you are politically correct.
If you choose to assault me because I am a white heterosexual male, then I think you should go to prison just as long as if you beat me up because I am rooting for the San Francisco Giants against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
An interesting new college model - Minerva
10 years ago
