Hate Crimes & Terrorism

Referencing my article below, here’s another crime that won’t be classified as terrorism (and probably shouldn’t be) and it also won’t be classified as a “hate” crime (as was the crime committed by Naveed Afzal Haq in Seattle).

I agree with Betsy wholeheartedly about the classification of “hate” crimes. How does it make an assault or a murder more of an assault or a murder?

Person A kills Person B.

Scenario 1: Person A is a wife who just can’t stand her husband anymore. She’s really mad because he will not put the seat back down and he never picks up his dirty under shorts. She “hates” him.

Scenario 2: Person “A” is a member of one religious or ethnic group. Person “B” is member of another religious or ethnic group. Person A “hates” all persons of Person B’s religious or ethnic group.

Person B is just as dead. Murder one is murder one.

As Betsy says, “Why should motive (apart from self-defense) make a murder more or less heinous?”