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The left says we must support the illegal immigrants and Muslims too.
There is no reason to be alarmed if one kills the other.
Its all perfectly acceptable and no reason to start enforcing the law now.
Nah, that's not it. Immigration is irrelevant to the murder that apparently took place. The dead woman wasn't particularly religious (per the coverage I've seen), so it might be a stretch to call her Muslim.
Murder isn't acceptable, I don't care what ideological blinkers we have, the first rule of a society is that we must be reasonably secure in our person.
It will take a trial to sort out what happened. If the accused did bludgeon this woman to death, I expect him to be sentenced & serve out his time (if it's not a capital case - depends on the facts that surface in the trial).
Thoughts alone are never a crime. But every crime requires a mental state and an act and they must be simultaneous.
Of course every crime involves a mental state. Your comment is vacuous. Explain why certain mental states should require extra punishment while others don't.
Well... no, not really. The thoughts are not being penalized. It is the action that is penalized more harshly because, when motivated by bias toward a group, it has a greater negative impact on society.
Hate crime laws are legitimate in theory. But of course in practice they are not applied fairly, and wind up causing more injustice than they remedy.
Actually, yes. Motivation can be punished with extra jail time. That is penalizing certain thoughts.
However, I do agree that things like racism, etc... that can motivate someone is damaging to society. No question. But so are lots of other things that we don't penalize.
I also agree that hate crime laws are often applied unfairly. That's actually an excellent point.
Of course every crime involves a mental state. Your comment is vacuous. Explain why certain mental states should require extra punishment while others don't.
Because, in the wisdom of past judges and present Legislators, those mental states are deserving of greater condemnation--whether for deterrent purposes or for mustering a punishment that meets the criminal misdeed.
For example, we (collectively) assign more criminal responsibility to someone who plots and carries out a killing than someone who kills by accident. You can justify the different levels of responsibility by the need for greater/lesser deterrent. Or you can justify the different levels of responsibility on the basis of greater/lesser moral approbation for the criminal's conduct. As the common law developed, moral approbation was the greater driver. It still reigns supreme as the justification for criminal punishment. Drunk driving is a perfect example.
The same conduct creates dramatically different punishment depending purely on the consequences of the act.
If you get in a car and drive drunk, you'll face a pretty minor punishment for a first offense. If you get in a car and drive drunk and get in an accident where no one is hurt, you'll get a more significant punishment. If you get in a car and drive drunk and get in an accident killing someone, you'll face a severe punishment.
If deterrence were the main justification of punishment, then we would more harshly punish any drunk driving offense, knowing the risks it poses.
Plenty of people in this thread seem to think that hate alone is a crime. It is not. My comment was not vacuous because people clearly do not understand what a hate crime is.
It is not. You must have a conspiratorial act to be convicted of conspiracy.
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