re: #142 reine.de.tout
re: #167 Aceofwhat?

I’m a late convert to hate crimes laws, and late doubles as code for “reluctant believer in their occasional necessity.” The part about hate crimes legislation that gets left out in these discussions is that 1) they include training for local law enforcement on group bias crimes (which doesn’t make the law itself good or bad; this is just candy), and 2) (this is relevant to the discussion, IMHO) the legislation makes money available for investigation or prosecution of these crimes when local law enforcement is unwilling or unable. (ie, local sheriff/DA won’t investigate or prosecute a crime against a black man, a gay woman, a Muslim, etc.
That’s not only a tangible benefit but points out that victims of minority bias crimes *don’t* all face the same “well, it’s a crime for anyone to get attacked” playing field.

But boy is that a rathole.