Last night I was listening to talk radio. A woman called in and said that Zach M. (the guy who threw the gernade into his own military camp, can't spell his last name) should be tried for a hate crime. She said he was hating white non arabic males or something like that. Then the guy hosting the show said that it doesn't work that way, only white males can be charged of hate crims.

My question is this, do you agree with the host's statement? Do you think it's fair if that is the only way for a hate crime to exist? What do you consider to be a hate crime?

I don't really agree with the statement, but I don't really hear much about a person in a minority getting charged with a hate crime. If only a person of a majority group can be charged of a hate crime, that is very unfair. As for what I believe a hate crime is, I honestly don't really know.

Not sure if this is a poll or should be in general talk.

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This isn't going to be PC, but I'll say this anyways.

I think the whole idea of "hate crimes" is really a silly concept- at least in how they are dealt with. Is a crime really any worse because there is "hate" involved with it? Aren't all crimes really a form of hate anyways? And as many categories of "hate" at there is, how many crimes now don't fall into that somehow or someway?

And what does adding additional punishment onto a crime accomplish just because it's a "hate" crime? Does it really add any more incentive to not do the crime than if it wasn't. Would knowing that their crime is a "hate" crime really cause a racist bigot to not do the evil they're plotting anyways?

I realize that people perceive crimes done by one group to another as more "offensive" than others sometime, but really when we start pushing some of this I really feel that we're only reinforcing the idea sometimes that different people groups are different and not equal. Is a black life more valuable than a white life, or is either of those more valuable than an asian life? NO! They're all equal.

Like I said, I know I'm not PC or even in the majority on this, but in so many ways I think that the fascination with so called hate crimes really doesn't do much good, but actually draws more attention and glory to the hateful racist attitudes than it would otherwise. And where do the victim groups stop? Oh wait, I know that one- with the white male. They're about the only one that can't have a "hate crime" committed against them.

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All I'm going to say-

The very notion of hate crimes is racism against whites, screw political correctness, I'm tired of people thinking that unless you're racist against whites your racist.

South Park dealt with this issue excellently. The point is that if you pay attention to the race you are pretty much racist. If a white man kills a black man, it's NOT a hate crime. A hate crime is when someone kills someone else BECAUSE of the race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, etc.

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I get confused with hate crimes period. Isn't like any murder or homicide a Hate Crime? Because you obviously MUST hate a person so much to kill them, otherwise you're proabobly mentally unstable and unable to control your anger. But I'm not sure, I don't know all the details, but I do Support My troops over there, even though im not for the war.

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Thornton to Heatley all day, every day.

I don't get why there is a catagory for hate crimes when all crimes are done on the basis of hate. It just seems stupid.

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It basically means you kill someone because they are gay, black, white, hispanic, big breasted, etc.

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SHAME ON YOU FOR EXPRESSING YOURSELF!

You have to remember when hate crime laws were implemented and why they were put there. During the Civil Rights movement, these laws were put in place, because white men would kill or beat a black man and have no charges brought against them. The most notorious would be of the boy who whistled at the white woman. Three white guys followed him home, beat, tortured, and shot the boy. They found his body attached to a cotton gin fan thrown in a river. The men went to trial, but the white judge and the white jury found them innocent.

That is one of only many stories of lynchings, beatings, murders. I have posted a picture of Emmett Till's body when they found it.

[I]Mod edit: No need for that image. *gross* [/I]

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Dude.

What the f.

Why did you post that.

Musicfreak while I'm sure you were just getting your point across there was no need to post that picture. That is just disgusting and shouldn't be shown.

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Shouldn't be shown?! So we should just push our social misqueues under the rug because some people think they aren't necessary or are just plain disgusting?! Wow, the narrow-mindedness makes me physically ill to my stomach. This boy was murdered because he was black and he whistled at a white woman, and this is what they did to him. And what happened to the guys who did it? Nothing, they were acquitted. Sure you don't want to see it, but that is a major part of U.S. history, the civil rights movement and the equality of man. That just re-inforces the need for hate crime laws in this country today. Next you are going to tell me that we shouldn't show the victims of 9/11 because it makes you "sick" to look at those pictures. We need to look at those pictures because they are reminders of wrongs that have been committed and are to show what we shall never return to again. Look at that picture again, and instead of seeing a disfigured corpse, look at HIM for what he truly was - a *******ING PERSON! He died for a purpose greater than you or I could ever imagine, if you lived during this era you might understand the urgency of this photo, but you are much younger and much more naive. It shouldn't be shown...give me a *******ing break.

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Dude chill.

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I thought most hate crime legislation was pretty new (since the 90s).

Maybe I'm wrong.

But I don't understand how one murder than be "worse" than another.

It isn't worse. Hate crime charges are not limited to murder. A hate crime can be an additional charge. I think there is a misconception here that a "hate crime" charge is worse than a charge of "murder". A hate crime can simply be spray painting a racial slur on a building or something of that nature. But it is definitely not worse than murder, it can just be an additional charge to make a sentence longer. If a person is convicted of, say, second degree murder, they won't even get a life sentence in most states (25 years), so if you have additional charges, such as a hate crime charge, that adds several years to the sentence if convicted on the hate crime charge.

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Time flies like an arrow.
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Basically all hate crimes are are a distinction between having a reason for killing someone and not, which isn't right. There is no reason whatsoever to kill somebody, and the perpetrator shouldn't be punished more or less for having a certain motive.

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