Hate crime as a legal standard: Explain

[MaryL]

How do you substantiate it? Is it rather...ahem tenuous and subjective? And that begs the standard of proof, isn't this outside the rigorous standards we expect of jurisprudence? Feelings, tenuous emotions and vaugaries excluded? By what standard of proof, what metric can you find something is "racist"? Amazing stuff.

 

[Viktor]

How do you substantiate it? Is it rather...ahem tenuous and subjective? And that begs the standard of proof, isn't this outside the rigorous standards we expect of jurisprudence? Feelings, tenuous emotions and vaugaries excluded? By what standard of proof, what metric can you find something is "racist"? Amazing stuff.

I have some legal background, having attended law school for a year and served as a Legal Officer in the
US Navy for 4 years. The term "hate crime" is often
used too liberally to be accurate. In the USA, we have a tradition of free speech backed by a Constitutional amendment, so, unlike much of Europe(and Canada), just saying something hateful about a group is not a crime here.

Various media organizations like Facebook Twitter and UTube deal with hateful speech as part of their terms of service to keep it under control as much as possible.
David Duke's antisemitic and racist radio program has been taken off the air and this is an indicator that the American way is decent and wholesome.


Under US law, there is a provision on the books of many states that, in the case of a violent crime, extra prison time can be awarded if the jury decides the crime was motivated by bigotry or hatred of a group. The usual increment is 5 years.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

How do you substantiate it? Is it rather...ahem tenuous and subjective? And that begs the standard of proof, isn't this outside the rigorous standards we expect of jurisprudence? Feelings, tenuous emotions and vaugaries excluded? By what standard of proof, what metric can you find something is "racist"? Amazing stuff.

.

If it becomes illegal to hate something or someone, then I'm guessing it will soon be illegal to love someone or something.

Pretty chaotic, and we all know who the father of chaos is.

Are any of us surprised?

.