Hate Crimes

[ck1]

Why are these treated more severely than other crimes. For example, if somebody was beaten up because they are black / gay / muslim, why is that worse than somebody being attacked because they were looking at somebody's girlfriend's ass or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

[murraymints]

Because anything racial is quite a serious thing...and highly offensive !

[dave50]

They shouldn't be, the reason should be irrelevant.

[ck1]

murraymints, it's highly offensive to be assaulted at all, why is it worse because of your religion / race etc?

[ummmm]

Because they are more targetted. Attacking someone for looking at your GF's arse could've been anyone.

[murraymints]

It's correct all assaults are bad but anything racially motivated is not pc ...sign of the times !

[Orderlimit]

Yeah, its about the motive and deterrence.

These offences carry higher maximum penalties than the equivalent basic offence and allows some of the lesser serious offences to be sent to the Crown courts.

[ck1]

Finger off the trigger there trigger

But there's always a reason for committing a crime, maybe it's because you're too tall, short, fat thin, ginger, posh, the way you walk, look vulnerable. Unless the perpetrator is blindfolded and deaf there is some spark that causes the offence. Why is assaulting a black person more serious than assaulting a fat person? Why is a racial insult worse than a comment about somebody's weight or appearance?

[ummmm]

I guess there are more people that hate black people, gays and Muslims than there are of people that hate fat and ginger people...

[murraymints]

Anything discriminatory motivated where the victim is attacked just for being who they are...rather than anything involving provocation or fighting etc.

[Eve]

The state of mind of someone who would attack someone who has not done anything to provoke it just because of hate in this context is dangerous as they could just attack people out of the blue just because of the colour of their skin, sexuality etc...

[dave50]

Why have so called hate crimes been elevated to such an extent so as to be seen as the worst crime in the world anyone can commit? It seems that anyone who calls someone names because of the their race colour, creed etc is seen as the lowest of the low and are scum of the earth but violent thugs, murderers and rapists are crimes that seem to be less of a stigma attached than calling someone names.

[ummmm]

Dave, you live on a different planet to most of us, clearly.

[Eve]

Bars on windows and doors seem to be cropping up a bit more round here though when I lived in Leeds they were pretty common in some areas. Was a nightmare trying to get someone to answer the door, I remember knocking on my neighbour's door once as I was worried about the neighbour the other side (their house has flooded), it was early evening and he finally answered the door with a hammer!

[Eve]

Sorry, wrong thread!

[Orderlimit]

The reality is that dave50, is not too far wrong.