hate crimes

I was interested to know when the term "hate crime" started to be used in legal areas, and found the information in the link included below.

It is interesting to note that the hate crimes are not separate criminal offenses...the offense was a crime regardless of how it is labeled. For example, assaulting someone is a crime...assaulting someone because of their race, religion, creed, or color and letting it be known you are assaulting them because of this purpose could be labeled a "hate crime" and depending on the state, the penalty could be enhanced or could be different because it was a hate crime. It is interesting to note, that rape...a crime mostly against women is, in most states, not labeled as a "hate crime".

A hate crime, whether violent or not (burglary is not a violent crime, but if the burglar burgles because of the victim's creed, religion, color, or sexual orientation, then it is labeled a "hate crime"...sometimes called a "bias crime", which I think is a better definition), is because the perpetrator has a bias against the victim. The bias has to fit within the hate crimes offense as decided on by the state...for example, bias against someone wearing Nike sneakers isn't labeled a "hate crime" whereas bias against someone because they are perceived to be homosexual is labeled a hate crime.

In some cases, I believe labeling the crime a "hate crime" is warranted...the homosexual college student that was killed in Wyoming several years ago should have been labeled and prosecuted as a "hate crime"...but, I also believe the chances that this label will be mis-used or used too much are high.

I believe there are a lot of hate crimes committed and not prosecuted as hate crimes...just because it is extremely hard to prove the motivation for the crime was because of bias...unless the perpetrator announces before, during, or after the offense that it was committed because the person was white, asian, indian, green, Jewish, Muslim, Arabic, homosexual, or some other description that fits with the hate crime definition.

The information below is interesting reading and did give me insight.

http://www.violence.neu.edu/in_the_news ... te_crimes/

I think that's what I said, and it's BS!

Do I need to quit screaming "DIE COMMIE SCUM" when I'm shooting now? Don't want to offend the commie scum after all.

Heartless: I don't know where commie's would fit into a hate crime definition...it isn't religion, it isn't race or color or creed or sexual orientation...I think you'd be safe and wouldn't be charged with a hate crime if you screamed that when you were shooting.

Whew!

Is it a hate crime if you shoot a person because she is a Democrat?

What was she doing? Just saying she is a Democrat implies taking from others, but a little clarification would help.

On the street it's called "robbery",
in government it's called "taxes".
Difference, you can run, defend yourself, kill the "robber",
you can get a lawyer (to prove yourself innocent) or pay, or get jailed, no running, no killing.

Then again, "Revenuers", are still in danger in some parts of the east & south mountains.
Understand "They ALL, them revenuers got purrty months!" :can't hear