Wrong. Well at least I think. He is a piece of shit, waste of oxygen just like the ones you mention.
I really disagree. If we are going to continue to make examples of criminals to try to detour others from doing the same what better person to choose.
If a healthy black, white, hispanic, indian, asian man wants to beat the living shit out of an elderly woman BECAUSE HE CAN after or before robbing her of all of $33, let the fucker pay the ultimate price the crime can be punishable for.
Much different if it were a 30 yr old fit woman and a man, she would be much more likely to survive an attack like that, and the man would probably have more thought process to just rob and jet than use her as a punching bag because she'd be more likely to cause him damage in turn.
If the sentence doesn't stand that's an incredible shame. Fine. Let him lose in a room full of elderly women armed with canes that just finished watching that video.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough, let me explain a little further.
This guy is a piece of shit. The world wouldn't be any worse off without him on the planet. He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison, and I'm happy about that. However, what this means for the law system in the future is not such a hunky-dory issue, and that's my problem.
Firstly, this wasn't a hate crime. She happened to be an easy target, so he's guilty of robbing and assaulting someone who couldn't fight back as opposed to robbing and assaulting a 23-year-old kick boxing champion. That's, as Raes said, oppurtunistic, not hateful. He attacked her in particular because she was there, she was old, and he couldn't lose. You can't say he attacked her because she was old, he attacked her for her money. That's robbery, not a hate crime. Can you prove that he wouldn't have attacked someone else had they been there instead of her?
If you look hard enough, any crime can be described as a hate crime. Man rapes a woman, that's hatred of women. He wouldn't have done it to a man, so it flies. If you rob someone's house on Decemeber 23rd, you're guilty of hating the Asian man and his family in the house, Christians because it's the time of year when they're celebrating their most important festival, and guilty of hating the Mexican man who built the house. However, this shouldn't be the case. Yes, rape and crimes along the same lines should have FAR stronger sentences, but for me that's not a reason to start labelling crimes *hate crimes* just to get a tougher sentence. What's wrong with overturning the judicial system and actually handing out sentences appropriate to the crime?
I'd far rather see a rapist jailed for 100 years because that's the maximum sentence for this crime(my opinion of what life should mean, LIFE) than a rapist be jailed for 100 years because the judge managed to wangle the case into a hate crime. To me, a hate crime is committing a criminal offense against someone purely because of a hatred for one or more of said persons characteristics, be it race, height, weight, or anything else like that. This man was guilty of assault and robbery, nothing more.
Judges are now having to find other ways of jailing the people who need jailed for longer times because of the *maximum allowed sentence*. Why not *increase* the maximum allowed sentence for certain, or all, crimes? Surely we can all agree that someone serving 10-15 years as a "life sentence" is a joke, and is something that has needed changed for years?
As much of a piece of shit as this man is, in my opinion, he has been wrongfully brought to court and found guilty, and been handed an exceedingly harsh sentence for reasons not relevant to the case. Yes, he should have been found guilty, but not of a hate crime. As I said before, he's no loss to society, and I couldn't care less that he'll be in prison for the rest of his life, but in future cases, this will be looked at as the solution to a flawed judicial system and a way to hand out hyper-harsh sentences, when there's a simpler, more sensible resolution.
I guess hate-crime is on of those new buzz-words that actually encompass 99% of possible crimes to commit. About the only example of a crime I can think of that couldn't possibly be classified as a hate crime is a motor-related crime, and even then I'd imagine there'll be someone who could twist it into a hate issue.