12-30-2013, 11:54 PM
These knock-out crimes are crazy shit, no doubt.
While the 2009 statute extended the hate crime act to include crimes where victims are targeted based on sexual orientation and/or transgender, it also tacked on these two stipulations which apply to victims targeted based on race, religion, disability...targets who were already covered in the 1969 act:
- Removes the prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally protected activity, like voting or going to school;
- Gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;
^ Those two changes give authorities a much broader reach to classify something as a "hate crime" and open the door for the feds to step in if they believe such a crime has occurred and the state doesn't want to pursue it (or maybe doesn't have the means).
One recent example of the broadening of the fed reach that kinda bothered me was the push by some to have Zimmerman charged with a hate crime and tried at the federal level after the state of Florida failed to get him convicted.
Haven't heard anything about that lately and I know the fed said that they were reviewing it (they kinda had to say that at the time), but it would have rubbed me the wrong way to see him tried again, in a different criminal court, for the same crime under a different classification (regardless of how I feel about his guilt or innocence).
While the 2009 statute extended the hate crime act to include crimes where victims are targeted based on sexual orientation and/or transgender, it also tacked on these two stipulations which apply to victims targeted based on race, religion, disability...targets who were already covered in the 1969 act:
- Removes the prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally protected activity, like voting or going to school;
- Gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;
^ Those two changes give authorities a much broader reach to classify something as a "hate crime" and open the door for the feds to step in if they believe such a crime has occurred and the state doesn't want to pursue it (or maybe doesn't have the means).
One recent example of the broadening of the fed reach that kinda bothered me was the push by some to have Zimmerman charged with a hate crime and tried at the federal level after the state of Florida failed to get him convicted.
Haven't heard anything about that lately and I know the fed said that they were reviewing it (they kinda had to say that at the time), but it would have rubbed me the wrong way to see him tried again, in a different criminal court, for the same crime under a different classification (regardless of how I feel about his guilt or innocence).