A bit of politics

I don't usually talk politics, but a new law the governor of Maryland has just signed has me confused. He has just signed legislation extended "hate crime" protection to homeless people.

Ok, so by that logic, is it a hate crime if a single family howeowner assaults me because I live in a townhouse? Or if I don't like a person who rents in my neighborhood when I own my house?

A crime is a crime, just prosecute it and stop looking for the motivation behind it.

Off soapbox. Now here's something I hope you'll really like:

Haven't read the law...is it referring to the new hobby of "bashing homeless people or beating the homeless" that some youngsters have started?

locokat02 wrote:Haven't read the law...is it referring to the new hobby of "bashing homeless people or beating the homeless" that some youngsters have started?

Attacks on homeless become hate crime in Md

By BEN NUCKOLS – 20 hours ago
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland has become the first state in the nation to protect homeless people under a hate-crimes law.

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a bill Thursday that explicitly outlaws targeting people because they are homeless.
The bill was sponsored by a conservative state senator who opposed extending hate-crime protections to gays and lesbians. Since then, Republican Sen. Alex Mooney has lobbied to expand the hate-crimes law to include other groups.

Mooney says the homeless are particularly vulnerable. He introduced the bill four years running before it was approved. Defining such attacks as hate crimes will allow prosecutors to seek tougher penalties.
Other states including California and Texas are considering similar bills. The Maryland law takes effect Oct. 1.

I've always been confused by the notion of a hate crime... I mean, if I'm going to kill or seriously assault someone, chances are, I don't like them. I agree, a crime is a crime. Aside from that, it's just more bullshit to extend extra protections to "minorities." Take a look at this: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/01/seven_attackers_beat_shaker_he.html

Basically, three black guys beat the shit out of a AARP-eligible white private-practice lawyer who was out on a walk, looking for money and telling him they "Wanted to fuck him up" in the course of the beating. But, has one utterance of hate crime ever been made? Suggested? HELL NO. It's an upper-middle class white guy and the perpetrators are the "societally repressed" black guys. Is this not a hate crime? It sure as hell would be if it were a black lawyer and three punk white kids.

If we have the notion of a "hate crime," then it should be universal across the board for any kind of premeditated violent crime and applicable to any race/social/cultural background. Hell, if it were the 3 black kids beating up on a black lawyer, it should still be a hate crime if we are going to have them at all. They targeted him because he looked affluent, would have money, and thus deserved a beating.

hate crimes are not to protect minorities.

classifying something as a hate crime allows for greater punishment

Of course there is no punishment for simply hating minorities just because they are minorities.

Cat

cat wrote:hate crimes are not to protect minorities.

classifying something as a hate crime allows for greater punishment

Of course there is no punishment for simply hating minorities just because they are minorities.

Cat

Yes they are there to "protect minorities." Like many laws, there is an intended deterrent effect here - "I better not beat up that gay/black/Mexican/Chinese guy or else I will be charged with a hate crime and be punished more severely."

I don't care why someone is beaten up, stolen from, etc. If I get assaulted because someone hates me personally and someone else gets assaulted because someone hates the homeless - the crimes are EQUAL. The motivation for them is besides the point. Prosecuting based on what someone is thinking in either case isn't right. It's not a crime for someone to hate me, nor is it a crime for someone to hate the homeless. The ACTION taken against someone is the crime.

What's funny anyway is the court system in Maryland cares nothing for the innocent and seemingly is more concerned with the rights of the defendent.

Ok then we need to make some other laws equal as well.

Domestic abuse or domestic assult should be called what it is - assult or attempted murder.

Stop letting the fucking assholes hide behind semantics.

Should there be extra punishment if sexual abuse is against a child? Or is it the same as an adult? Or were they just asking for it, too?

I don't even pretend to have the answers for the sick fucks of the world.

However, I would not even scrape them off the bottom of my shoes - I would just burn the shoes.

Cat

cat wrote:Ok then we need to make some other laws equal as well.

Domestic abuse or domestic assult should be called what it is - assult or attempted murder.

Cat

Agreed.