Hate Crime Laws Essay examples -- Hate Crime Essays

Imagine you are a family member of a man who was chained up to the spinal column of a pickup truck and drug along a gravel road for two miles until he was dead. Then imagine how you would feel after you rig out that this happened just because he was a black man. Things like this sicken me. I believe that the nation that are responsible for these horrific criminal offenses should be prosecuted to the ample extent of the law. That is why I strongly support hate crime laws. Now, before I dive into this very controversial subject, I should probably see what hate crime laws are so you will wipe out a better understanding of what I am talking about. As I have understood it, hate crime laws are laws that protect certain minorities or groups from bias motivated violence and harassment, and also more harshly punish people that commit these crimes against them. As I started to do my research on hate crime laws I began to notice that there are many experts that are on my side of this issue, and very few experts that oppose hate crime legislation. According to Issues and Controversies on File some experts that do not support hate crime laws believe that these laws perpetuate inequality among U.S. citizens. They say that hate crime laws single out or pick the minorities that get the special privileges while other groups go int get any protection. The way they see it is, why should it be any more of a crime to attack a gay person, they ask, than a heterosexual person?(506). Other experts that oppose hate crime laws such as Don Feder, believe that these laws deny another basic concept of majority rule (equality before law) by creating different classes of victims(3). Feder says that anti-bias laws punish ideas. He believes that the... ...ated Violence. Corrections Today August, 1999 683.Hate Crime Laws. Issues and Controversies on File. Dec. 25, 1998.4.Hate Speech. Issues and Controversies on File. June 4, 1999.5.Hays, Kristen. guess Charged Wi th Hate Crime. Vancouver Columbian Mar. 3, 2000A2.6.Jacobs, James B. Hate Crime Legislation Challenging Intolerance. Current Sep. 19927.Jost, Kenneth. Hate Crimes. The CQ Researcher Jan.8, 19938.McCafferty, Dennis WWW.HATE.COMES TO YOUR HOME Is it Free Speech? Or Does it Incite Violence? USA Weekend March 26-28 6-79.McCarthy, Sarah J. Fertile Ground For Terrorist? Humanist Jan./Feb. 1999 15-16.10.Sheppard, Nathaniel, Jr. Hate in Cyberspace. Emerge July- Aug. 1996 34-40.11.Title 9A. Washington Criminal rule Chapter 9A.36, Assault-Physical Harm. West Revised Code of Washington Annotated. 1999.