I don’t get it, don’t all crimes involve some level of hate ?
With very little fanfare, the Hate Crime categories have been expanded in such a thoughtless way, that chaos in our courts is bound to ensue.
Under prior existing federal law, hate crimes are defined as those motivated by the victim’s race, color, religion or national origin. That has now been expanded to include violence motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, or disability.
Generally speaking, if a person assaults a Catholic because he hates Catholics, that person can be convicted of a hate crime. However, if that same person assaults that same Catholic because they hate their looks, and not their religion, then it is not a hate crime.
I mean, really, that’s the way it works.
The hate crime laws are crazy laws. If someone assaults a Catholic, the 
punishment should be the same, regardless of whether the perpetrator hated Catholics, or not.
Should the punishment be less for an atheist ?
So, what is the point ? Hate laws are just feel-good, politically correct laws that make justice more difficult to attain, and do absolutely nothing to protect victims. That’s why no one has really noticed that the categories have been expanded.
Some day these laws will be seen as arcane, and silly, and will be eliminated, just like we’ve seen so many Blue Laws eliminated for the same reason.
(An example of a Blue Law: In one State I lived in, it was illegal to sell produce on Sundays. The archaic reason given was that farmers should be in church, and not out selling their crops. Of course, with the passage time, it was ignored, and eventually removed from the books.)
So, maybe in a 100 years the Hate Laws will be obsolete, and will go the way of the Blue Laws.
The addition of gender, and sexual orientation, to the Hate Crime categories is going to be very interesting, because, while it was probably intended to protect homosexuals, it actually can work both ways. If a homosexual were to assault a straight person, male, or female, because they hated straight people, then they could be prosecuted for a hate crime.
I don’t think it would be a stretch to prove such hatred; it is clear that many homosexuals do hate straight people. One only needs to review the vehemence, and hatred, spewed by homosexuals, at those who object to gay marriage. There is a ton of hatred there; from both sides, I’m sure. If violence occurs at a demonstration, then there quite possibly could be Hate Crime charges.
From now, on, almost every crime will have to be scrutinized in terms 
of the Hate Crime categories; chaos, chaos, chaos.
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I think that the existing Hate Crime categories should be amended, yet again, to include three additional victim categories: age, political affiliation, and atheist.
The atheist’s need special protection because religious folks hate them.
And who is hated more in this country than the older folks, especially the Baby Boomers ? They need special protections.
And every political party hates every other party, and that should be a hate crime, too. Maybe it would bring some sanity to our current political chaos if a few score of politicians, and thousands of citizens were thrown into jail for awhile.
And maybe we could just throw the whole government in jail for hating regular citizens.
Hmmmm… maybe this Hate Crime business is not such a bad idea, after all.
And that is just my opinion.
Spencer Holly
0068
www.angrycalifornian.com
