wwjd

OK I guess I'm not in the mood to stayout of politics today...

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/14065/the-wwjd-hate-crime-inciters-are-getting-some-support-for-their-dc-protest

You can read the article, but the picture alone is enough. Anyone holding up a poster that says "God Hates You" is clearly not reading the same bible I am. While it is not my place to judge anyone, I have a hard time thinking of that person as a Christian.

The other thing the article points out is that hate crimes laws for years protected (and still do protect) religious-based hate crimes. Nobody seemed to mind then.

I get this question a lot - the "why do you need hate crimes laws when you already have laws governing these bad actions?" e.g. if someone commits murder, they should be punished for murder, no matter what the reason was, that murder is inherently bad no matter why. Fundamentally I actually agree. The problem is that there is so much subjectivity in our legal system, particularly with sentencing. Say for example someone killed someone else because they were gay. Judges and juries all have personal beliefs, and while they aren't supposed to get mixed into their decisions, we're human, and of course they do. So, a homophobic judge might be swayed to give the murderer a lesser sentence. Wrong? Of course. But that is the reality of things. If there is a hate crime law that gets tacked on top of it, that ensures that won't happen. Still not completely fair? Of course it isn't, but our legal system wouldn't function well if it were overly rigid either. And you still have to prove that something is a hate crime in court, which is not always easy to do.

I guess mostly I see hate crimes as sort of a deterrent - if it makes anyone think twice about acting out violently against someone of some sort of minority specifically because they're a minority, it's done its job.