Does honesty really pay.

[MelissaAndProudOfIt]

Thought i would cover hate crime, in that i learnt just the other day it"s term was being used incorrectly, in that though the Hate part i guess was right, the Crime part wasn"t as apperntly the police or court have not considered it to be a crime, but an enforcable offence such as Grevious bodily harm or other similar charges and perpetrators wil be charged for this and not for hate crime which is worse..i think. I think.  I've always believed the punishment should fit the crime, and Hate Crime should carry a stiffer penalty than it seems to at the moment and justice should take a far greater stand against any hate crime.  Everyone can have their own opinions, though should keep it to themselves as inciting hate by imposing their personal views on others can lead to such hate crime.  Generally those who use violence seek to find a reason to justify themselves and for those who impose their views to these people only leads to Hate Violence. 

As on new Crossdressers wish to break free of their closet always has a thought in the back og their mind of will i be ok today or tonight out en femme.  We are all Human and we all live on this globe, so long as we hurt no one, the why should it matter who or what we are, as at least we are honest not only to the world, but more importantly to ourselves

[RithiaAllen]

At the risk of being unpopular, I think hate crimes are a slippery slope. We have existing laws in place to protect usallas a whole. These crimes already have steep penalties. Murder in a number states is a capital offense and your life is over if your convicted. Other crimes leave people felons and destroy their lives.

 

You can’t outlaw bad feelings or people saying things that hurt you. That’s a price of freedom and we need to get thicker skin back. As of late people’s skin seems very thin.

 

When I was in high school I saw cross dressers out in public in Georgia. They where safe, they got stares but that isn’t illegal.

 

I think what needs to happen is greater education on the subject to raise awareness.

[VickySGV]

Speaking from a legally trained background, while I do not know what they involve in other countries, Hate Crimes in the U.S. do not exist as Separate Crimes.   The term refers to sentencing enhancements and conditions of parole.  IE a crime that carries a 20 year sentence with possibility of parole where it is found to be a hate crime by definition, will become a 25 year sentence without possibility of parole or commutation.  The Hate Crime enhancement is invoked where the defendant has a history of animosity of a defined group of people (possible  prior assault etc.) that is publicly known and has been thought out well in advance of the crime and poses the motivation to commit the crime. Other defined elements of actual hatred of the specific victim are also needed to be proved  "Beyond Reasonable Doubt" in order to support a conviction. 

 

I have been on a jury in a case where a Hate Crime enhancement was sought and found that there was a problem, and had to do some fast and serious talking to my fellow jurors.  The jurors I was with misunderstood the Judge's instruction and felt that if they did not see the evidence of the Hate Crime having been met, that they could not convict the defendant of the basic crime (assault with a deadly weapon) which they did agree had happened and should be punished.  I had to convince them to clarify it with the Judge, which we did, and in hearing us ask the Judge, the District Attorney dropped the enhancement count, and we went back in and convicted the guy.  (This had been racial hatred, not Transphobia but the same issue could have resulted in an acquittal in a Trans case.)