I think hate crimes are racist. Or at the very least, discriminatory. I’m not talking about the actual crime committed, I’m talking about the classification of a crime as a hate crime.
Imagine there are two people out for a stroll one evening. Both are walking down the street, and both are stabbed by an unknown assailant. Both are killed.
One of the people killed is a white guy, around 60 years old, in good health and a heterosexual. Just an ordinary, average guy. Someone like me. For the sake of discussion, let’s say it was me. On the sidewalk next to my body someone has spray painted the word “cracker”.
Now, imagine that the second person is a black guy, around 60 years old and also in good health. On the sidewalk next to his body, someone has spray painted the word “coon”.
If they catch the killers, the person who killed me will be charged with some sort of murder (1st, 2nd, manslaughter, etc.). The person who killed the black guy will be charged with some sort of murder, with the special circumstances of it being a hate crime.
Why is that important? Because in California (and other states) if a murder is classified as a hate crime, it allows a punishment of death or life without parole.
Is one of us more dead than the other? Nope, we’re both the same amount of dead. Yet the punishment for killing me is less than the punishment for killing the other guy.
Here’s the problem. Anyone who kills me will never be charged with a hate crime. Why? Because white guys are the least protected demographic in the country. It’s considered less bad to kill me than it would be to kill someone who is a homosexual, or black, or Asian, or fat, or disabled, or a woman, or Jewish or any of a multitude of other things.
In fact, hate crime laws could possibly put me in greater danger.
Let’s say that I’m walking down the street with a black guy when we’re approached by a bad guy. The bad guy wants to kill someone, but he doesn’t particularly care who. And, he knows that, if he’s caught, it’s worse for him if he’s convicted of a hate crime. So, he kills the white guy. Me.
Hate crime laws are discriminatory because they don’t apply to everyone equally. The law helps prevent me from killing you, but not you from killing me. Yet we’d both be the same amount of dead.
