I'm sorry but this guy is banned and he can post threads?

WTF?

But if the person attacks the white middle aged guy simply because he hates him, thats not a hate crime and the guy should get a smaller sentence, right?

Again, hate crimes refer to groups, and are meant to targert a certain type of criminal (one who thinks harassing/assaulting/killing a group of people due to certain characteristics that group possese is justified and right).

@pizzahut451:

you dont just attack someone because you like him. you aussault someone because you hate him.

That's really not true. A guy who's desperate for money will attack soneone because he wants money, not because he hates his victim.

There are exceptions, yes. But thats not the case here.

Not just because you think ''im bored, and that guy there annoys me, im gonna break his skull now, simply because''.

There are psychopaths/sociopaths who actually behave like that, and use such reasoning.

So this guy in the article was a sociopath ?  We dont know enough about him to make that judgement. For all we know that gay dude killed his whole family. or do we already know his motive from the article ?

Every type of violence is a product of hate, and just because someone attacked a gay person he shouldnt get a higher sentence because the person is gay.

People like you seem to misunderstand the logic behing hate crime laws. It's not a hate crime to attack a gay/black/asian person etc., it's a hate crime to attack someone because they're gay/black/asian etc.

I know that, but going by that logic, almost all crimes that involve violence are hate crimes. The whole point of ''hate crime'' is ridicilous. If someone attackes me because im white, thats a hate crime and the guy should get a higher sentence, but if he attacks me for some other reason its not a hate crime and guy should get a lower sentence???

If I wore a pink shirt and some homophobic douche saw me on the street and thought I was gay, and he said "hey, let me teach that fg a lesson", and he beat me up it would still be considered a hate crime, even though I'm not gay.

Hate crimes refer to the motives and reasoning of the criminal, not the identity of the victim.

Also, as I said not every type of violence is a product of hate (think of the guy who beats someoen because he's desperate for money).

Are their health and lives more valueable than anyone elses?

No, but homophobes and racists are more dangerous than other criminals.

Not true,most of the worst crimes in history are not hate crimes. Look it up.

Homophobes/racists are dangerous individuals who don't target people, but groups. Most violent crimes happen against known people the criminal knew (like you hypothetical case of the guy beating you for not liking you), however racists/homophobes target groups of people (whom they obviously don't know, as they would never interact with people part of the groups they hate), and they go on sprees looking to beat up/harass/kill random people who are part of the groups they hate and think should be eliminated.

Well, a group of gang also targets people and harass them.There are people who do that. Maybe not because of their sexuality and ethnic orgin, but for other reasons. But harassemt is still harassment, and harassment should be treated equally in the court of law.

I wonder if a lot of people in this thread actually went to law class? :/

Hate crimes refer to the crimes that involve hate. than pretty much every type of aussault and murder. is a hate crime. Because every person belongs to a certan group of people.The motive is not important. Its the crime itself. A guy who beat up a gay person shouldnt get a higher sentence than a guy who beat up straight person, even if he does hate gay people.

If you did, please give us your contribution.

The motive is very important to establish how dangerous the individual is, and how likely he's able to be rehabilitated. It's not so much WHO was attacked/harassed/killed etc., but rather WHY the criminal acted the way he/she did.