Quote Originally Posted by spoonitnow
Quote Originally Posted by Triptanes
OP = spoonitnows dad
I laughed at Triptanes' comment.

But I voted neutral. I don't think it should be illegal to be racist or homophobic or to have any other prejudice, even if it becomes motivation for a crime. While I myself am very much repulsed by these types of prejudices, I think that it boils down to making it illegal to have a certain type of opinion or belief, which is something I can't agree with.
Its not making it illegal to have a certain set of beliefs its illegal to act on the illegal ones being motivated by the racism.

I think that for someone to be charged with a hate crime there has to be several factors. Was the crime committed solely because of persons race/sexual orientation etc, and if so does the person committing the crimes show remorse or show that he would still commit the crime and future crimes of that nature. If so then its a hate crime.

If I beat up a gay guy because we were drunk and he bumped into me and I called him a fag as I beat his ass thats not a hate crime, thats two people fighting.

I think a lot of hate crime stuff was made to stop skin heads and KKK and other militant groups that wanted to terrorize people.