Extension of the Hate Crime Law

[Coasterkidmwm]

The new addition to the Hate Crime Bill is gay people. Is this good or bad?

"critics argued that pastors expressing beliefs about homosexuality could be prosecuted if their sermons were connected to later acts of violence against gays."

"Tom McClusky, vice president of the conservative Family Research Council's legislative arm said the next step likely would be contesting the legislation in court. "The religious protections are pretty flimsy," he said. He contended that Democrats were trying to move their "homosexual agenda" this year because it would prove unpopular with voters next year. "

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091008/ap_ ... ate_crimes

Looks like I need to call the Waaaaah-mbulance.

[hyyyper]

I still don't get the hate crime thing you guys have. How is punching a black dude worse (or better) than punching a white guy?

Yeah this is ridiclious. So if i get in a fight but i say im gay i can get the other guy in more trouble? I agree with hyyyper, if i punch a person who just happens to be gay i get in more trouble? Oh spare me thats so ridiclious.

[Turbo]

I'm honestly not even going to vote on this. The hate crime law is rediculous (with exeption of groups like kkk). If you punch a person, that happens to be a different race or ethnicity, punching that person is still punching a PERSON.

Hyyyper I completely agree

The hate crime law is racist...

I think you guys are all mis-reading this. A hate crime is when someone is targeted because of their race or whatever else, not just because they happened to get attacked. You definitely wouldn't get prosecuted for a hate crime just because you "punch a person who just happens to be gay." Now if you went to their house and burned "fag" into their front lawn, that would probably be considered a hate crime.

Edit: actually here are some good general examples from wikipedia:

"During the past two centuries, some of the more typical examples of hate crimes in the US include lynchings of African Americans, cross burnings to drive black families from predominantly white neighborhoods, assaults on white people travelling predominantly black neighborhoods, assaults on gay, lesbian and transgender people, and the painting of swastikas on Jewish synagogues."

This is way different from random fights where people pull the race card.

[gouldy]

Laws adjudging hate crime usually spark exactly what they supposedly attempt to nullify. Creating laws like this only serves to incite further problems between "groups". People should be treated as equals, especially in a court of law and hate crime laws are the best example of discrimination that you could possibly find. If you murder someone because they are of a different race or belief system, then that is your motive, however ridiculous it may be.

Who decided it was somehow worse to murder someone, if your reasoning was stupid?

As a white hetrosexual male, if I murder a fellow white hetrosexual male because I hate him for whatever reason, should my sentence be shorter than if I murder a black gay female because I hate her for being a black gay female? I don't see what the difference is.

[Turbo]

HERE'S SOMETHING FOR YOU ALL TO ENJOY:
Go to southparkstudios.com and watch the episode "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime"... It's free and it will show you what our hate crime law really is lol. It is in season 4

[Kev]

I wasn't going to respond to this topic because these types of conversations on here usually turn into ugly flame wars, but I couldn't help myself.

I don't want special treatment for who I am, so I guess you could say I don't agree with idea behind a hate crimes bill. All violent crime is a hateful act, no matter who it is directed upon. That being said, I want to say this... I don't particularly appreciate the fact that other minorities are deemed special enough to be covered by such a bill, but gay folks are not. I hear so many people talk about there shouldn't be special laws protecting individual groups, and I agree with that. But what some of you don't see is that there are many laws that EXCLUDE individual groups.

[rcmaniac25]

Originally posted by gouldy

Laws adjudging hate crime usually spark exactly what they supposedly attempt to nullify. Creating laws like this only serves to incite further problems between "groups". People should be treated as equals, especially in a court of law and hate crime laws are the best example of discrimination that you could possibly find. If you murder someone because they are of a different race or belief system, then that is your motive, however ridiculous it may be.

Who decided it was somehow worse to murder someone, if your reasoning was stupid?

As a white hetrosexual male, if I murder a fellow white hetrosexual male because I hate him for whatever reason, should my sentence be shorter than if I murder a black gay female because I hate her for being a black gay female? I don't see what the difference is.

Exactly, you put into words what I could not.

These hate crime laws were designed to protect minorities from being attacked because of their race and other reasons. They weren't designed to say that if "a white man hits a black man then its a hate crime." The white man would not be charged with a hate crime unless it was proven that he was doing it because the man was black. Now what they're trying to do is extend this to gay people, although I don't think its right to stop pastors from preaching it because we do have this thing called "seperation of church and state"