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I don't understand. Who said a hate crime is "worse" than any other crime? Since when has a distinction been made between the two, particularly with regard to the level of suffering?
I never quite understood what constitutes a "hate crime" and why the punishment for one is greater than a good ole friendly crime. What does that say to the victim of as non hate crime (whatever that means); basically that their pain and suffering isn't as worthy of the pain and suffering of a victim of a hate crime?
I have mixed feelings about this. When it comes to things like murder and assault, I don't think there should be a difference: the victim is just as injured or just as dead, regardless of why they were targeted.
However...spray painting "f*** you" on a random house is vandalism, and it's bad. Spray painting a swastika on a Jewish person's house is vandalism, but it's also threatening, a form of intimidation. And yes, I think it is more serious, and deserving of harsher punishment.
I never quite understood what constitutes a "hate crime" and why the punishment for one is greater than a good ole friendly crime. What does that say to the victim of as non hate crime (whatever that means); basically that their pain and suffering isn't as worthy of the pain and suffering of a victim of a hate crime?
I don't see a problem with crimes being labeled as hate and possibly getting extra punishment for it.
Crimes have always been separated by degrees, such as violent vs. non violent, or some crimes having additional circumstances tacked on that could lead to harsher punishment.
A person being the victim of a crime due to property (having wallet taken away opportunistically) is a completely different situation than a person being the victim of a crime due to his race/ethnicity/nationality/etc. Such hate crimes are targeting not only that person, but everything that person represents, so it is a much more potentially dangerous situation.
After all, if someone gets shot during a robbery gone wrong, there won't be much discussion on here, but if that same person got shot by someone yelling Allah Akhbar and Death to Americans, then there would be much heated discussion on here because it was a hate crime. One situation far worse than the other and should be treated as such, no?
See what I'm saying?
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