re: #263 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

I still think applying special rules to crimes like hate crimes is not a good idea. Assault is assault and murder is murder. Making certain people special victims doesn’t make any sense to me.

it’s tough to see a problem that should be stifled by a law continue for decades and generations.

The alternatives:
increase education
increase vigilance
increase penalties

Education on these issues has been tried and deemed no sufficient (and sometimes, at least for considering gays as non-punching bags, has been rejected as “indoctrination of our kids”)

Vigilance in the form of more police is expense, in the form of community members leads to vigilantly justice.

Penalties for assault are generally considered reasonable, should we increase them because some assaults are statistically more likely than others, or attack the specific problem: increase the penalties for the specific crime.

It’s not a perfect solution (because any new law as unintended side effects)

But THIS LAW works, and generally is not abused, and over decades we can see the decrease in hate crimes. Is that because of this law or because society gets better: probably a little of both.

Thus my conclusion: it is a just and reasonable law that will probably reduce the amount of hate crimes against gays in this country, whom are certainly worthy of protection.