The man in that story is sick! Yes, these acts of violence are crimes! And racial hate crimes are not the only onces which should be considered, but also sexual orientation!

There is still so much prejudice in our world that we would be foolish not to protect our citizens from it by enacting hate-crime laws and stiffer penalties for these crimes. While I fully realize that a crime is a crime and should be punishable no matter what, we all know that it simply doesn't work that way. A crime that would not have been committed if the person were not of a different color, ethnicity, religion, sexual-orientation, immigration status or anything that makes them different from the accepted norm should have additional punishments attached by law. Hate-Crimes are a very serious violation of human rights and those who would perpetrate such a crime on another human being should be dealt with severely.

It si a roblem that is gettign worse people are getting killed for their skin color or their relgion and we can't seem to slow it done. SOmething needs to be done and fast.

A crime is a crime. If someone commits it then its a fellony. But why is it a hate crime when a white guy or anyone that's not black for that matter says "nigger" but when a black man or women says it its ok? That's not protecting blacks from hate crimes, that's giving them immunity from words. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Right? Same with all kinds of prejudism! Just because some guy hit her with his car and got angry and started yelling obsanities doesn't mean that it was an F-ing hate crime! The fact that he admitted to doing it because she was black, that's a hate crime. Laws are needed, but not as strict as they are right now. They need to be more relaxed and less bias. And what I mean by that is if anyone not white yells "cracker" to a white person, its ok, its not a hate crime. But when a white man yells "nigger" to a black man its a hate crime! What is this country coming to?

If we keep them they need to be majorly altered, adding on my list next to affirmative action.

The problem with Hate Crime legislation is that there is a lot of gray areas. Who do hate-crime laws protect? Where does the protection begin and end?

Last week, Jim David Adkisson opened fire on a Tennessee church because he wanted to kill liberals because "they are ruining our country."

Slate magazine asks the question, is killing a liberal a hate crime? If it is, then what other beliefs should be protected under hate crime legislation? If it is, why is political belief not protected while religion and sexual orientation are?

Hate crime laws are not needed. It shouldn't matter WHY they did the crime, when it comes time for their sentencing. I mean, how would you feel if someone killed your family because the guy wanted their car, and he got a lot less time in prision than they guy who killed a family because he doesn't like Messicans? It shouldn't matter.