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Three White Men Convicted of Hate Crimes

PW4000

PW4000

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Three white men convicted of hate crimes in attack at Houston bus stop - Houston Chronicle

"Three white men were convicted Monday of a racially motivated attack on a black man at a downtown Houston bus stop last summer, the first conviction in the Houston area under a tough federal hate crime law."


It would seem to me that indeed, America has a real problem with rearing its children to obey the law and respect others. It would also seem to me that there are a lot of people like this out there, behaving exactly the way their parents taught them - either by omission or direct malfeasance in their parental responsibilities. How else do people turn out to be so depraved.

This is what happens when you fail to parent.

A society in collapse, no doubt. I'll give the country I love so dearly, another 75 to 100 years before all hell breaks loose - if we don't collectively get our moral act together.

It begins with Parenting.
 
Its a shame that "Do unto others as you would have done unto you" isn't enough anymore.

However, I think that "hate" crimes is a really silly silly concept. It takes Intent beyond what is required.
 
PW4000 said:
It begins with Parenting.
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Yes it does, but it does not end there nor is parenting the "be all end all" determination of ones actions.
 
Prosecuting as a hate crime is silly. Did they commit the crime with hate in their heart? If so, then it's something to be considered during the sentencing phase of a trial, but putting that into a hate crime law really does nothing, other than to add yet another silly-assed law to a legal system that is already bloated with silly-assed laws.
 
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its very sad that some people would murder, or rape, or rob someone......simply due to their skin color.
 
its very sad that some people would murder, or rape, or rob someone......simply due to their skin color.
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I would amend your statement to: "it's very sad that some people would murder, or rape, or rob someone, period."
 
Thunder said:
its very sad that some people would murder, or rape, or rob someone......simply due to their skin color.
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So you think there are valid reasons to rape,murder or rob someone?
 
jamesrage said:
So you think there are valid reasons to rape,murder or rob someone?
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That's not what he's saying. He's saying that it's even more illogical to do it because of race. I don't know about rape, but I could see where murder and robbery would be seen as logical courses of action depending on the circumstance. Hell, governments do it all the time. The same as people who are down on their luck. You're broke? No jobs? Rob somebody with money.

Actually, people reason out murder all the time. Religion, fraud, etc have all led to murder. However killing somebody because of their skin color is as illogical as one can possibly get. It's based purely on an emotional instinct and nothing more.
 
jamesrage said:
So you think there are valid reasons to rape,murder or rob someone?
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no, but doing it simply due to their race, religion, ethnicity, or sexuality, makes it worse.

motivation is ALWAYS taken into account when deciding on a charge & punishment.

hate-crime laws simply codifies a certain type of motivation to make it easier for the jury.
 
So you think there are valid reasons to rape,murder or rob someone?
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I cannot fathom when rape or murder would ever be justifiable under any motive. I don't care how evil or innocent a person might be, it doesn't mean she deserves to be raped or killed. But I do see shades of gray for the crime of theft, in the sense that some robberies seem more tragic than others. We're less likely to feel sorry for the arrogant billionaire who loses a couple hundred dollars from an unscrupulous bookie than we are for the blue collar octogenarian grandmother mugged outside the soup kitchen.
 
its funny how haters of hate-crime laws think that motivation should never be taken into account when choosing a charge or a punishment for the crime.

or at least, that appears to be their failed misunderstanding.
 
Thunder said:
its funny how haters of hate-crime laws think that motivation should never be taken into account when choosing a charge or a punishment for the crime.

or at least, that appears to be their failed misunderstanding.
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I do not think anyone has said that motivation should not be taken into account.We find that putting one 1st degree murder victim above another 1st degree murder victim because of race,sex,sexual preference or some other non-issue to be idiotic. Justice should be blind.
 
danarhea said:
Prosecuting as a hate crime is silly. Did they commit the crime with hate in their heart? If so, then it's something to be considered during the sentencing phase of a trial, but putting that into a hate crime law really does nothing, other than to add yet another silly-assed law to a legal system that is already bloated with silly-assed laws.
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I agree dan... This hate crime thing is out of control...its being used as a weapon...does anyone really think men with a character that can rape really just look for women of one color...please...some rapists rape 85 yr old women....
 
Thunder said:
its funny how haters of hate-crime laws think that motivation should never be taken into account when choosing a charge or a punishment for the crime.

or at least, that appears to be their failed misunderstanding.
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No, I believe that it should be taken into account when choosing punishment, but not when charging with a crime. Murder is murder. Period. Shouldn't be hard to prove it. Did the perp shoot someone? Did that shooting kill the person? Pretty cut and dried, if you ask me. When sentencing comes about, then you should be able to show that he deserves a tougher sentence because the perp shot a guy because he didn't like his skin color, sexual orientation, or what have you. Either that or we could have a whole bunch of new laws:

1) Murder with rape crime.

2) Murder while kicking his dog.

3) Murder because he was the quarterback that lost a football game.

Oh hell, I bet I could think up dozens of new laws. How about this instead? We prosecute murder as murder, then during sentencing, we THEN bring up these other facets of the case. Much simpler, and less dumb.
 
jamesrage said:
I do not think anyone has said that motivation should not be taken into account.We find that putting one 1st degree murder victim above another 1st degree murder victim because of race,sex,sexual preference or some other non-issue to be idiotic. Justice should be blind.
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you appear to want Justice to blind, deaf, & ignorant of the realities of our society.
 
danarhea said:
No, I believe that it should be taken into account when choosing punishment, but not when charging with a crime. Murder is murder. Period. Shouldn't be hard to prove it. Did the perp shoot someone? Did that shooting kill the person? Pretty cut and dried, if you ask me. When sentencing comes about, then you should be able to show that he deserves a tougher sentence because the perp shot a guy because he didn't like his skin color, sexual orientation, or what have you. Either that or we could have a whole bunch of new laws:

1) Murder with rape crime.

2) Murder while kicking his dog.

3) Murder because he was the quarterback that lost a football game.

Oh hell, I bet I could think up dozens of new laws. How about this instead? We prosecute murder as murder, then during sentencing, we THEN bring up these other facets of the case. Much simpler, and less dumb.
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we as a society, through our legislators, have decided that certain motivations for certain crimes, should require higher penalties.

murder as a hate crime, rape as a hate crime, assault as a hate crime, deserves higher penalties than regular murder, rape, and assault.
 
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