Hate crimes

Here's a great article about a serious issue:

Gregory Kane: Hate crime laws attempt to criminalize thoughts | Washington Examiner

This is certainly an inflammatory subject, but I would side with the author: homicide is wrong no matter who you are or who the victim is. The article cites several awful murders involving minorities, and that there are established laws to prosecute the criminals to the furthest extent of the law. But hate crime legislation singles out certain groups of offenders as "worse" because of their motives, and crimes against certain victims as "worse" because of the victims' group. This means in practice, as the author points out, if a white person kills a black person, the stricter provisions of hate crime law will apply, but if a Latino kills a black person, it's just another murder. I would argue that this violates the 14th amendment, but I would have to look into it more. In any case, while people should learn to get along and be civil with people unlike themselves, racism will always exist and people will always have their opinions. Homicide will always be prosecuted, but peoples' thoughts or opinions, even if prejudiced, should not.