Exposition: Determining Hate Crimes? Hate based on race, religion and sexual orientation exist within any cultural rich societies. When this type of hate fuels a person into taking violent actions upon those they hate, it is called a hate crime; a topic which the American public is seriously concerned about. It hasbeen a widely discussed subject on the media, and often debates of whether or not a crimeshould be attributed with hate are the center for discussion.Does hate crime imply on any case when a person is convicted for inflicting damage onsomeone "different"? It is often difficult to set a benchmark for measuring sufficiency of hateas a cause to label it in front of crime. The term can be conveniently stretched and squeezedby people with different ideas and biases. The four white policemen who brutally beatRodney King Jr., a black man, half to death for merely speeding is determined by the courtsjudgment, as officers performing their duty. Hate, to those particular jurors and judge, wasnot a valid concern. To them, the beating was not due to the officers resentment for a blackman, but because they were simply disciplining an offender of the law. To the minoritygroups, the courts ruling was outrageous. From their point of view, the savage beating wasunnecessary and hate was obviously the factor which induce the four cops to perform such anasty feat. Because people have varying views and opinions, application of the term "hatecrime" is not always relevant. Can we assume the murder of Nicole Simpson by OJ Simpson ahate crime since it involves a black man killing a white woman or are there more in depth twistto the case? People who are willing to do a little thinking, do not just look at the difference ofthe victim and the convicted and draw conclusions of whether or not the crime is haterelated, they examine all the other psychological elements also. The most common way ofjudgment is to ponder: if the victim was of a different race...
