Thug Attacks George Galloway...

[sandyRoe]

Alleged attacker was 'shouting something about The Holocaust' Should he be charged with a hate crime?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28992601

[Gromit]

Just read all the answers, and it left me wondering how the headlines and AB answers would have gone if a jewish MP had been attacked in the street.

No excuse for thuggery.

[agchristie]

Correct Gromit. I've little time for Galloway but so what, this applies to lots of politicians and other folk. He has his views and I have mine. If the attack is to be excused on this basis I would have hundreds of convictions to my name.

[vetuste_ennemi]

"But if it was hate which sparked the assault isn't it right that the assailant faces the full weight of the law's outrage?".
No. Hate crime should have no place in the legal code of a free society. The purpose of the law should be the protection of the persons of its citizens and their property from violence and theft, and to defend their freedoms. The concept of hate crime is unnecessary in order to serve the first purpose and, in practice, is being used to hinder the execution of the second.

[Daffy6543]

I didn't say I advocate the violence, I said I struggle to have sympathy. Those are two completely different things.

[bazwillrun]

at least a broken jaw might keep his fat mouth shut for a short while...better than nothing...hes a vile odious gobschite, same as livingstone

[sandyRoe]

Don't be mealymouthed, Baz. Say what you feel.