What's the point of hate crimes legislation?

It just doesn't make sense to me that some crimes are considered hate crimes and others are not because ALL crimes are motivated by hate. If you kill someone or beat someone up, it means you hate them right? What does it matter if the victim was a minority, a child, the elderly, a prostitute, or the boy next door? Why should crimes against minorities be given special hate crime status as if those crimes are somehow more horrible and ignominious than crimes against anyone else?What's the point of hate crimes legislation?Because it sets an example that extreme, violent prejudice doesn't pay.What's the point of hate crimes legislation?In a legal sense, it is incorrect to state that all crimes are motivated by hate, even murder.



Hate crimes send a message to the targeted community that "You're not wanted here." Hate crime laws demonstrate our civil society's commitment that such bias-motivated criminal conduct is unacceptable.What's the point of hate crimes legislation?Well, a few things to consider. Not all crimes are motivated by hate, for example if you are neglectful as a landlord and cause fire hazards to exist, when a fire kills your tenant, you can go to jail for quite some time. You didn't hate your tenant, but you did kill her.



Generally, the argument in favour of hate crime legislation would be that hate crimes are, in addition to being crimes against their victims, crimes against others in the form of harassment and intimidation. For example, if I burn a cross in someone's yard in a largely Jewish neighbourhood, in addition to being guilty of arson with regard to that person's yard, I am guilty of intimidation to the people in the neighbourhood whom I was trying to make feel unwelcome by burning a cross.



There is a counterargument that we should only consider the directly harmful aspect of crimes, and this is not an unreasonable point. Generally the severity of the underlying crime in the hate crime case is far and away the most important factor in all stages of the criminal justice system. Whether you commit simple murder, or hate crime murder, you are going to jail for a long, long time.What's the point of hate crimes legislation?
just another example how the bridge between "good intentions" and the law is rarely crossed easily, and how forcing "cultural standards" into the cold, mechanical framework of law is problematic.



the most ironic thing is that, at it's basis, "hate crime" legislation judges that killing for a "belief" is worse than killing for a "profit."



That seems to contradict the very philosophy that established this country (which was founded on "ideals") and the basis of why we, as Americans, supposedly fight. In effect, under this mind-set U.S. involvement in WW2 was a "worse" decision than our erradication of Native Americans, as it was based on "hatred" of facism than our desire for more land.