Quote:
Originally Posted by Saya
Hate crimes aren't for different people, they're for everyone, a white person can be the victim of a hate crime just as much as a black person. However, the reason to pursue a crime as a hate crime bears down a heavier sentence on a crime that otherwise would get a light sentence. For example, the murder of a transwoman by a man that felt he was "deceived" and killed her when he found out that she was trans. If pursued as any kind of murder a jury would probably feel sympathetic and would blame the victim for not disclosing that she was trans. As a hate crime case, however, we work from the angle that discriminating against transsexuals is just as bad as killing someone if they were black or Christian or whatever, the jury can't give him a lighter sentence and would be more likely to sympathize with the victim.
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If the jury doesn't already have sympathy for the victim, how is a law going to make them have it?
Personally, I think the change that needs to be affected is social, not legal. Murder is murder, no matter who does it to who.
You can't litigate sympathy and you can't manufacture tolerance.
Social change is an agonizingly slow process, but it works.