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Originally Posted by Coder
Interestingly enough, this is exactly what Blair's opponents are saying when criticising these new laws. There are already laws in place against crime, there need not be any new laws which also crack down on freedom of speech.
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Well, same as anti-hate crime legislation people here, too. I don't think a racial slur is
any more of a crime than me calling a person an asshole, bitch, or any other number of choice words I could choose. They all show the same feel- dislike/hatred for one or more person be it because you hate all New York cab drivers, Democrats, guys named Ed who spill a drink on your best dress, black people, or Cardinals fans. But it's still not a crime.
Which is where hate crime legislation comes in- it attempts to determine why you did something because (we'll go with second degree, crime-of-passion types) "killing a person because you hate the color of their skin" is somehow worse than "killing your wife because you found her in bed with another man" or "killing your accountant because he lost you $50K on a stock he liked".
And, frankly, there are quite a few of us who think that's wrong- you killed a person, you get the penalty for killing a person and the "why" should be divorced from the penalty because what you say and think should not a crime, but what you do is.
SI