Blueskies wrote:Ehwmatt wrote:BobbyinTN wrote:Bottom line, motive is a factor in every court case when it comes to murder. 1st degree, 2nd degree, involuntary manslaughter, premeditated murder, etc. If hate is a motivation, it should be part of the process for sentencing.
Good article Matt, but it's an opinion piece. I think whites are included in the hate crimes legislation as is everyone who might be attacked because of race or sexuality or whatever motivates assholes to hate so much they think they have to kill.
You still have not provided one shred of empirical evidence to prove that whites are protected in practice or in fact.
You have confused "motive" with "intent," which is how the different degrees of murder are distinguished.
The law, as I've read it, has no words which discriminate against anyone and is inclusive of all people within society regardless of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender or disablity. I take " regardless of race" to mean exactly that. " Hate crimes" are also known as "bias crimes" meaning one or a group that commits a crime due to their bias...no where do I see within " regardless of race" that the law excludes caucasions.
I would also like to add:
In Chief Justice Rehnquist's words,
"this conduct is thought to inflict greater individual and societal harm.... bias-motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest."
Ever heard the adage, don't believe everything you read? The fact of the matter is that, regardless of whatever the statutes
say, whites are not protected by hate crime statutes. My challenge, for the 800th time, is to find me empirical evidence of a white (non classified, i.e. not gay) victim of violence, especially by the hands of a black, being protected by a hate crime statute. Any at all. Otherwise, there is no argument. In the real world, empirical evidence and trends trump legislative language and sweeping decrees.
Statutes are only as good as those who enforce and interpret them. The enforcers, including cops and prosecutors, are too afraid to make the statute cut in all ways. The interpreters only have the power to interpret it as far as those who bring the cases before them - so we won't ever see what the judiciary will really do until prosecutors, cops, and legislators grow some balls.
As for Rehnquist's bolded quote, thank you for supporting my own argument - people are sick and tired of blacks beating or killing whites in race-motivated crimes and not being charged the way a white would be. Indeed, retaliatory crimes may follow. Emotional harm and community unrest are already there, and in the case of the latter, growing exponentially. People are getting FED UP