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PD, I *do* think the "thought police" comment has a place in this discussion (and it's not coming from a paranoiac right-wing perspective).
If Jimmy is a heterosexual male who doesn't like gays, is that a crime? If he really *hates* gays and does everything he can to avoid them, is that a crime?
No, but the term "hate crime" makes the gays feel better, somehow more protected, against those that are different from them.
Now, if Jimmy goes out and kills a gay man, is that a "hate crime", or is it just murder?
It's just murder, plain and simple. It might be pre-meditated, it might not be - either way, Jimmy knows it's wrong to kill another human being and he knows it's against the law, but he did it anyway. It doesn't matter *why* he did it, it just matters that he did.
Just as if I came home and found Castlehawke banging the hell out of some babe he picked up on the corner and I beat his skull in with a baseball bat after ripping out his throat with my bare hands.
It doesn't matter that it was a "crime of passion", what matters is that I knew it was wrong to kill him, but I did it anyway.
In both cases, Jimmy and I should be charged on the fact that we killed someone - not *why* we killed someone.
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