Hate Crimes (+)

Maybe I’m just too stupid to understand but what is up with hate crime laws.
If I beat someone up to rob them I get X number of years in prison. If I beat them up because I hate them I get an extra Y number of years tacked on to the sentence. Why is it worse to harm someone out of hate than greed? Like I said, I just don’t get it.

The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's hate crimes law today. Why? Because the law was too broadly worded and could be applied to rival sport fans or political supporters. The AP article says:

Forty-eight states have hate crimes laws, but Georgia's was the only one that did not specify which groups qualified for protection.

So let me get this straight: The law needs to specifically state who is a hate crime victim? Sounds to me like anyone excluded from the list is already a victim of a hate crime.

I guess my problem is I was never hated enough growing up to understand this concept. Maybe there should be a degree of hate test:

I hate you as much as:
_ stale bread
_ broccoli
_ traffic jam
_ paper cuts
_ pop quiz
_ taxes
_ bee stings
_ flat tire
_ the other political party
_ Osama Bin Laden
_ telemarketers
_ spammers
_ your ex
_ your current mate’s ex

First you determine the person’s Hate Quotient (HQ) and subtract that from the person’s IQ to determine a Differential of Hate (DOH).
DOH = IQ - HQ
If the DOH is less than 25 then it qualifies as a hate crime. My theory is the dumber you are the more dangerous it is to hate. For public officials you would need to multiply the HQ times 3 to account for the Hitlers, Pol Pots, etc.
DOH = IQ – (3*HQ)

"Your honor just because my client beat the victim to death with a tire iron it can't be a hate crime because he has a DOH of 27"
I'm sure that makes the family of the victim feel better.

Coincidently the FBI’s Crime Statistics for 2003 was released today. The FBI provides the following hightlights from the report about Hate Crime:

Hate Crime In 2003, 11,909 agencies actively participated in the hate crime portion of the UCR Program, and 1,967 of those agencies reported 7,489 hate crime incidents involving 8,715 separate offenses, 9,100 victims, and 6,934 known offenders. Of the 7,489 hate crime incidents, 7,485 were due to a single-bias, and 4 were due to a multiple-bias. More than half (51.4 percent) of all single-bias hate crime incidents in 2003 were racially motivated. Law enforcement investigators attributed nearly 18 percent (17.9) of hate crimes to a religious bias, 16.6 percent to a sexual-orientation bias, 13.7 percent to a bias based on ethnicity/national origin, and 0.4 percent to a disability bias. In 2003, 63.3 percent of reported hate crime offenses were classified as crimes against persons, 36.0 percent were classified as crimes against property, and 0.7 percent were classified as crimes against society. Law enforcement agencies indicated that intimidation was the most frequently reported hate crime. Intimidation accounted for 31.5 percent of all hate crime offenses and 49.7 percent of crimes against persons. Destruction/damage/vandalism of property, the most frequently reported hate crime against property, comprised 30.0 percent of all reported hate crime offenses and 83.4 percent of hate crimes against property.

Guess I need a Criminology degree instead of one in Computer Science.
The report states “destruction/damage/vandalism of property” is the most frequently reported hate crime against property. It is 83.4 percent of the hate crime against property. So what is the other 16.6 percent?!?!? All I can think of is theft. Damage to property accounted for 30 percent of ALL hate crime in 2003. It was just beaten out by “intimidation” at 31.5 percent. So does that mean 61.5 percent of all hate crimes in 2003 were vandalism and intimidation? It seems to me if a punk spray paints a swastika on your front door that would count as both property damage and intimidation. I wonder if they are double dipping the stats.

And all this brings me back to the original point – if someone keys the side of your car because of color does it really matter if it is the paint or driver's color? A bully that breaks the law should be punished.

Has anyone out there been a victim of a hate crime? (and a girl slapping you in a bar doesn't count - I'm sure she had a valid reason to hate you.)