Canada kicks racist butt!

[sapphi_snake]

Khuutra said:

Hate crime laws are something of a savage hypocrisy; I understand the sentiment behind them, maybe even agree with that sentiment, but the fact of every crime marked as a hate crime is that every crime of that kind is a hate crime, coming down to the hatred between persons rather than between groups.

There is precedence for punishment based on motivation - premeditated murder is much worse than spur-of-the-moment murder, in the eyes of the system - but I don't think that hatred is a proper metric for punitive recompense.

Racism is a more sinister beast in Canada than it is in the States, though; compare racism in Canada to racism in the Deep South and you are fighting two different creatures. This country is akin to Ohio or Montana or Indiana, where the greatest part of racism never speaks before it acts.

These guys have a maximum sentence of 12 years instead of 10; their freedom is going to be theirs within five years. That's fine. Canada's punitive system is different, born out of a country that is very different.

I'm happy the men were put away, but I don't think this is news and I don't think hate crime codes ought to be praised.

I don't understand this... Attacking someone to steal their money isn't hate crime (and the motivation isn't hate). Attacking someone because they're part of a racial minority or because they're not heterosexual etc. is a hate crime (the motivation being hate and prejudice).

Hate crimes (real ones) are generally situations when a racist/homophobe targets random people based on their race/sexual orientation (thus your argument that it's hatred between persons, and not groups doesn't stand). Such a person is more dangerous that you're avarege criminal, who kills someone to steal their money (for example), because he targets individuals based on their race/sexual orientation, and will continue to terrorise such groups (the same way someone who premeditates a murder is considered more dangerous that someone who spontaneously decided to kill , or more dangerous than someone who commits a crime of passion).