toldailytopic: Hate crimes. Should acts of hate be criminalized?

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Nathon Detroit

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for February 18th, 2010 09:52 AM


toldailytopic: Hate crimes. Should acts of hate be criminalized?






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Rusha

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No, illegal actions should be criminalized (which they are), not the *perceived* emotion behind the act.

IMO, charging someone with a hate crime based on who they attacked devalues the rest of society and all other victims who are not in those *select* groups.
 
P

Ps82

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Hi Knight and Rusha,
I agree with this statement.
quote Rusha:
...charging someone with a hate crime based on who they attacked devalues the rest of society and all other victims who are not on those *select* groups.
Click to expand...
 
Mr. Beeks

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Rusha said:
No, illegal actions should be criminalized (which they are), not the *perceived* emotion behind the act.

IMO, charging someone with a hate crime based on who they attacked devalues the rest of society and all other victims who are not in those *select* groups.
Click to expand...

Enough said. Topic closed.

:)
 
CabinetMaker

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Rusha said:
No, illegal actions should be criminalized (which they are), not the *perceived* emotion behind the act.

IMO, charging someone with a hate crime based on who they attacked devalues the rest of society and all other victims who are not in those *select* groups.
Click to expand...
About as perfect a reply as I could hope for. I agree completely.
 
Nick M

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I thought acts of hate already were. Murder, stealing, bearing false witness, are acts, not emotions.

I remember the preview for a show that was to be on ABC. Some time travel nonsense cop drama. The cop from now is transported back to the 70's. He says "hate crime", and another cop says "as opposed to I really really like you crime?".

What other type of crime is there?
 
Skeptical Inquirer

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Acts of crime are already criminalized.
Murder, rape, robbery and theft are already punishable under current laws; these are clearly not motivated by love but rather by hateful selfishness.
Do you want motive to become a crime?
Motive has always been a part of crime investigations (except when the government is being investigated) and in the sentencing process of a trial, so why do we now need something more?
We already punish people for things that might have happened when we give out tickets for not wearing seatbelts because if they were to wreck they could get hurt worse than if; they would have if they had their seatbelt on before the wreck.
You can also be fined for talking on the phone while driving because you may become distracted and cause a wreck.
Why don’t we just arrest all of the poor because eventually they may take something that is not theirs or rob a bank?
It will never end if we keep going down this road.
We must turn around now or we could end up in the land of injustice.
 
Skeptical Inquirer

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How about a hard question like should we change our country into a tyrannically run dictatorship?
Alternatively, is there life on the moon?
 
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bybee

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Nick M said:
Hate crimes commited with assult weapons.
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Then there are hate crimes committed with Insult weapons.....? What I think is my own business. My choice of companions is my own business. The risks I choose to take (without harming others) is my own business. bybee
 
PlastikBuddha

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Rusha said:
No, illegal actions should be criminalized (which they are), not the *perceived* emotion behind the act.

IMO, charging someone with a hate crime based on who they attacked devalues the rest of society and all other victims who are not in those *select* groups.
Click to expand...

:thumb:
 
kmoney

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Rusha said:
No, illegal actions should be criminalized (which they are), not the *perceived* emotion behind the act.

IMO, charging someone with a hate crime based on who they attacked devalues the rest of society and all other victims who are not in those *select* groups.
Click to expand...

:thumb: Done and done.
 
Alate_One

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I like so many others agree with Rusha. I understand the reasoning behind hate crimes legislation because it often seems to many groups that crimes motivated by, racism, sexism etc. are somehow worse than normal crimes.

But honestly how do you know for sure what someone's motivation is? Did the guy actually know the person he ran over was homosexual, or did he get into an altercation with him beforehand?

However, the actual question was "should acts of hate be criminalized"? Would signs decrying homosexuality be a "hate crime"? If racial or ethnic cleansing began in a country and no statistics were kept for "hate crimes", would the acts be class as simple murder and missed as a warning sign?
 
Lighthouse

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Nick M said:
I thought acts of hate already were. Murder, stealing, bearing false witness, are acts, not emotions.

I remember the preview for a show that was to be on ABC. Some time travel nonsense cop drama. The cop from now is transported back to the 70's. He says "hate crime", and another cop says "as opposed to I really really like you crime?".

What other type of crime is there?
Click to expand...
That show was Life on Mars. It was a remake of a UK show with the same basis, but that line is specifically from the US version. And the other cop was his boss.

As for whether or not acts of hate should be crimes, it depends on how far it goes. Name calling should not be a crime. But lynching should be. However, they should not be special crimes. The motive should have no bearing on the severity of the punishment, or on whether or not it is a crime. As Nick said above, murder is a crime, as it should be. Same with attempted murder and assault. I can't really think of what else is currently considered a hate crime that should be a crime. Hate speech shouldn't be a crime, though.
 
zoo22

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Rusha said:
No, illegal actions should be criminalized (which they are), not the *perceived* emotion behind the act.

IMO, charging someone with a hate crime based on who they attacked devalues the rest of society and all other victims who are not in those *select* groups.
Click to expand...

I've asked this before but does anyone here find a difference between spray-painting "Knight was here" on a Synagogue, or spray-painting a swastika and "Jews in this town will die!" on a Synagogue. Both "just" vandalism. Yet I don't see them as the same. Nor do I see "People in this town will die!" the same as "Jews in this town will die!"
 
Rusha

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zoo22 said:
I've asked this before but does anyone here find a difference between spray-painting "Knight was here" on a Synagogue, or spray-painting a swastika and "Jews in this town will die!" on a Synagogue. Both "just" vandalism. Yet I don't see them as the same. Nor do I see "People in this town will die!" the same as "Jews in this town will die!"
Click to expand...

Both are threats towards specific people ... the town and Jews. Both are death threats. IF the threats were carried out, both would be premeditated murder.
 
Lighthouse

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zoo22 said:
I've asked this before but does anyone here find a difference between spray-painting "Knight was here" on a Synagogue, or spray-painting a swastika and "Jews in this town will die!" on a Synagogue. Both "just" vandalism. Yet I don't see them as the same. Nor do I see "People in this town will die!" the same as "Jews in this town will die!"
Click to expand...
Just because the motive is racism that doesn't make the crime any worse.
 
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