02/06: Hate Crime laws include Gays

[Freakapotimus]

City Council expands hate crime law to include sexual orientation
By TERRY KINNEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CINCINNATI, Feb. 6 — The City Council has passed an expanded hate-crimes law that allows additional penalties for misdemeanor crimes committed against a person based on sexual orientation.

Under the law, a hate-crime charge filed against someone charged with assault, for example, could effectively double the penalty if police believe the crime was based on sexual orientation.

Read the full story here.

[babes020401]

Finally gays are protected to some extent. It's about time

[TheEvilOne]

They can tack on additional penalties if they BELIEVE it was based on sexual orientation? Shouldn't they have to PROVE it?

[nathan1313us]

this is another example of the government butting in to an area of society that does not have a problem. people can work out the problem of homosexuality just as they can work out the problem of race. if the gov. doesn't drop its ways of forceing tolerance then we will all fear eachother. fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate. this is not a new subject. the only way to stop hate crimes to ignore them. now this may seem like a bad idea at first but after a while society will realize their flaws and work together to find a cure. this is a remarkable thing individuals do while influenced by society. they work together to find a norm that they all can agree with. now if our gov. can do this we would all be fine.

[KaneOfNod]

At 2/6/03 01:20 PM, babes020401 wrote: Finally gays are protected to some extent. It's about time

Gays are already protected by normal laws; I fail to see the reasoning behind "hate crime" legislation except for political gain among supporters.

[TheEvilOne]

At 2/6/03 04:42 PM, KaneOfNod wrote: Gays are already protected by normal laws; I fail to see the reasoning behind "hate crime" legislation except for political gain among supporters.

That's a very good point. Can't ANY crime be defined as a "hate crime", anyway?

[Slizor]

fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate.

Hate leads to suffering...

Anyhow, I can kind of see the thinking behind this whole hate crime lark. Y'know, the whole more punishment = discouragement thing(much the same as the Capital punishment thing) but it don't think it would really work. You really can't force cohesion in a society, you just need to educate and give it time.