Summary: I Say No To Hate Crime Laws

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Student Professor English 305 6 November 2009 I Say No To Hate Crime Laws Hate crimes are an irrational, ignorant and cowardly expression of desperation. A person who commits a hate crime is desperate to feel better, superior and in control. That being said, there should not be special laws and mandatory sentences for people who commit these heinous acts of violence because they do not accomplish the goals of eradicating or deterring bigotry. If we, as a society, put special laws and punishments into our legal system, we are unequivocally saying that the motive of these acts is more important than the intent or outcome of these crimes. I do not believe this is true nor do I feel that this is the position of the majority of people in…show more content…
Labeling a particular crime as special or different does not deter criminals from their true intention. If we place a "special" label on certain types of murder, rape or vandalism we are not preventing the hate that is the motive for such crimes. This is not the true goal of society. Helen Dodge makes a compelling argument to shun the members of such hateful communities in her article "Special Crimes Need Special Laws", when she says that the public should band together against such forces (Dodge 140). However, even she had to admit that these special laws won't deter the criminals who practice these violent acts. Murder is murder and regardless of motive if the intent to kill exist, no law is going to prevent…show more content…
Hate crime laws will only serve to divide crimes into lesser and greater offenses purely based on what we think the perpetrator was thinking at the time of the action. These laws will ask noncriminal minded citizens to try to understand the motives of a criminal. Who cares why? Don’t we all just want to know how to stop these crimes, how to punish the perpetrators? Won’t our own biases show through these special laws that are left up to interpretation. Lady justice is suppose to be blind. Hate crime laws should not be used to determine guilt or punishment because they separate civilized society into a larger group of hypocritical

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