'Are You Muslim?' Hate Crime

[RU OX Alum]

Hate Crime Laws are bullshit.

The penalties for a crime should be the same regardless of motivation.

[HDL66]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

And, Fox is worse about blurring the line between "news" and "opinion." It's a level of brazenness.

Originally Posted by agzg

I'm not sure - I find MSNBC to be fairly slanted as well (the other way, obviously).

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

They're all slanted...it's just that Fox is slanted opposite of every other one, so it's an easy target.

Originally Posted by Drolefille

I agree, for me it's about the blurring though. I've never had a hard time separating the news side and the opinion side on MSNBC.

This made me laugh out loud. Classic liberal double standard. Well, I'm on the conservative side and I've never had a hard time separating the news side and the opinion side on Fox News. Shall we call it a draw and all you liberals stop throwing out your "Faux News" slurs?

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

Hate Crime Laws are bullshit.

The penalties for a crime should be the same regardless of motivation.

Totally agree with this!!!

[agzg]

Originally Posted by HDL66

This made me laugh out loud. Classic liberal double standard. Well, I'm on the conservative side and I've never had a hard time separating the news side and the opinion side on Fox News. Shall we call it a draw and all you liberals stop throwing out your "Faux News" slurs?

Wow, "all you liberals?" Seriously? Comments on obviously slanted left and right news sources warrant that? Asking others not to throw out slurs while being insulting?

Well, if it's tit for tat: STFU and DIAF.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by HDL66

This made me laugh out loud. Classic liberal double standard.

I guess I could say "classic conservative comeback," but that doesn't add anymore to the conversation than "clasic liberal double standard." It's so much easier to dismiss the opinions of others when you can just shrug them off as "classic liberal" or "classic conservative" jerks of the knee.

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

The penalties for a crime should be the same regardless of motivation.

The law has long considered it permissible and appropriate to aggravate the penalty or seriousness of a crime based the offender's intent/motivation: assault with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, crimes committed for pecuniary gain, crimes committed for the purpose of impeding law enforcement . . . .

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

Hate Crime Laws are bullshit.

The penalties for a crime should be the same regardless of motivation.

Originally Posted by HDL66

Totally agree with this!!!

[MasTNX]

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

Hate Crime Laws are bullshit.

The penalties for a crime should be the same regardless of motivation.

Yet the penalties for treason are not the same as the penalties for theft or assault. The penalties for killing someone on purpose is not the same as killing them by accident.

Motivation is always important in crimes. Furthermore, like a previous poster said, if the motivation is to take the law into your own hands and control segments of the population through terror, then law enforcement has a burden to stomp it out. While people will always hate, they will always kill and steal, we make laws and punishments to discourage people from such actions. If you disagree with that, then you disagree with our whole legal system.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by MasTNX

Yet the penalties for treason are not the same as the penalties for theft or assault. The penalties for killing someone on purpose is not the same as killing them by accident.

That's because treason, theft, assault, murder (first or second degree) and manslaughter are all different crimes with different elements. The differing penalties have nothing to do with motivation in those instances.

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

That's because treason, theft, assault, murder (first or second degree) and manslaughter are all different crimes with different elements. The differing penalties have nothing to do with motivation in those instances.

I thought manslaughter was unintentional while murder was intentional? I have no idea on the degree of murder though.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by preciousjeni

I thought manslaughter was unintentional while murder was intentional? I have no idea on the degree of murder though.

In that sense, and generally speaking, yes. Intent to kill is an element of murder; it is not an element of manslaughter.

But that's not the same as talking about motivation, or intent in the sense of motivation. Talking about motivation raises the question of whether someone who kills another because he is mad at him (motivation = anger) should be punished differently from someone who, say, kills another for money or beause the victim is black/Muslim/gay . . . .

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

In that sense, and generally speaking, yes. Intent to kill is an element of murder; it is not an element of manslaughter.

But that's not the same as talking about motivation, or intent in the sense of motivation. Talking about motivation raises the question of whether someone who kills another because he is mad at him (motivation = anger) should be punished differently from someone who, say, kills another for money or beause the victim is black/Muslim/gay . . . .

Got it.