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Originally posted by The_Dude
there are rampant cases of racial profiling and other issues that are going on in the nation.
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Racial profiling / including race (or gender, even) in suspect profiles is becoming less effective as years go by. When it becomes more of a hassle than it is an asset (which is only a matter of time, as certain ethnicities climb the socioeconomic ladder), it will be abandoned.
Quote:
Originally posted by smooth
I didn't say that murder in the first did not equal murder in the first. Your statement, however, misses the mark. I stated that murder does not equal murder in the first (one element for that charge, by the way, is premeditation) and supported that with specific examples in the law in which murder does not, in fact, rise to the most heinous form we condemn--intentional, premeditated, and with malice.
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I don't think that I am missing the mark. Lebell stated generally that "murder is murder", and I believe that you misinterpreted it, and just listed various "degrees"/classifications of murder in hope of debunking him. Nowhere in Lebell's post did he even mention "first degree", so where you got that from is a little confusing. No, manslaughter is obviously not the same as murder-in-the-first as it is not premeditated, nor does it generally involve any intent to do injury. My brother faced involuntary vehicular manslaughter charges after a horrible car accident that he was in, and responsible for. Manslaughter is a different crime entirely.
As for "justified homocide" (sic, that gave me a bit of a laugh
), it does not involve the kind of thought-policing that hate crime legislation entails. A homicide is only justified if there was considerable threat of serious injury or death, and there was no option but to put down the attacker. Shooting someone who breaks into your house and steals your television but presents little or no physical danger to you would earn you some prison time (at least in MN). Distinguishing hate-motivated crime from other of the same degree, is a much more bold move than determining if someone was acting in self-defense by an examination of circumstance.
By specifying murder in the first degree I was hoping that you would see my point that if one person plans a murder because of financial gain, or someone else plans a murder because of the color of someone's skin, it doesn't matter. They are both the same crime and have the same results, and so should be punished equally -- hopefully not with seven year jail terms and probation.
Honestly, it seems to me that designating certain crimes as "hate crimes" merely gives them unintended power over the community that the crime was committed against. If someone who murders a homosexual is recognized as doing so out of hate for all homosexuals, then he is elevated from the level of a worthless human being that doesn't deserve to live, to that of a crusader that will end up giving his life for "the cause".