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I think it's a poor term that should be abolished.
My friend called me late last night, appalled and shocked of a hate crime. We had the Pride parade here, the gay parade, and some douches attacked it with a smoke grenade, pepper spray or an equivalent. 3 people tasted the smoke but are OK.
While I do find it certainly a crime, and while I might agree that it is a more serious in nature because it was an attack that took place during an open parade that could be similar to a protest or demonstration, but a peaceful one, thus an attack against free speech... I could agree with that. I would certainly, as a judge, weigh that in.
But my friend was upset because "they were nazis, I can't live in this country if we have this right wing movement, these nazis". He kept going on about nazis and swastikas. I was thinking that this must have like some psychological implications, because it was most likely some idiot kids, or youth, or young adults, who do not present a huge danger. Certainly not a nazi level threat of holocaust. I was quite amazed by the level of drama, I mean come on, have you read what the nazis did? They didn't throw one some grenade. They actually killed a lot of people and tried to wipe out things they listed. We had few idiots who probably do hate gays. At this point I protested because it was late and I was provoked to get a call like this late at night.
So I said, listen, I think it was bunch of idiots, I hardly consider them a threat unless otherwise noted. I'm sure the cops are looking into their connections.
"YEah, but it's a hate crime"
"A hate crime? What's the difference? They did what they did. The victims suffer all the same"
"Yeah but it's worse."
"how is it worse?"
"Well, it's the law"
"The law? So what."
"Just saying. Umm.. if you beat up someone, then if you beat up someone and it's a hate crime, it's far more worse if it's a hate crime"
At this point I was truly dumbfounded. How is it worse?
Can someone explain me please? My position is that we are equal regardless of sex, race, level of gayness, color of skin, etc. And so we should be all protected the same. And should we be victims of a crime, it's always as serious as if it happened to someone else, meaning that we always take it seriously.
My friend called me late last night, appalled and shocked of a hate crime. We had the Pride parade here, the gay parade, and some douches attacked it with a smoke grenade, pepper spray or an equivalent. 3 people tasted the smoke but are OK.
While I do find it certainly a crime, and while I might agree that it is a more serious in nature because it was an attack that took place during an open parade that could be similar to a protest or demonstration, but a peaceful one, thus an attack against free speech... I could agree with that. I would certainly, as a judge, weigh that in.
But my friend was upset because "they were nazis, I can't live in this country if we have this right wing movement, these nazis". He kept going on about nazis and swastikas. I was thinking that this must have like some psychological implications, because it was most likely some idiot kids, or youth, or young adults, who do not present a huge danger. Certainly not a nazi level threat of holocaust. I was quite amazed by the level of drama, I mean come on, have you read what the nazis did? They didn't throw one some grenade. They actually killed a lot of people and tried to wipe out things they listed. We had few idiots who probably do hate gays. At this point I protested because it was late and I was provoked to get a call like this late at night.
So I said, listen, I think it was bunch of idiots, I hardly consider them a threat unless otherwise noted. I'm sure the cops are looking into their connections.
"YEah, but it's a hate crime"
"A hate crime? What's the difference? They did what they did. The victims suffer all the same"
"Yeah but it's worse."
"how is it worse?"
"Well, it's the law"
"The law? So what."
"Just saying. Umm.. if you beat up someone, then if you beat up someone and it's a hate crime, it's far more worse if it's a hate crime"
At this point I was truly dumbfounded. How is it worse?
Can someone explain me please? My position is that we are equal regardless of sex, race, level of gayness, color of skin, etc. And so we should be all protected the same. And should we be victims of a crime, it's always as serious as if it happened to someone else, meaning that we always take it seriously.
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