Here's my question, and maybe I'm super naive, but other than a crime of passion (maybe) you don't kill somebody because you really really like them.
I hate clowns. If I go out to a bar and meet somebody, and a little while later he tells me he's a clown, and I kill him (just follow along here), isn't that a hate crime? I killed him not because I didn't like his face, but because he's a clown and I hate clowns.
Should we put clowns on the hate crimes law? Will it make all the other clowns feel safer?
Serial killers who used to have blonde mothers and now go around killing blondes. Let's put blondes on the hate crimes law.
I don't know, it just seems strange that we should have to single somebody out, not for special protection, but for special punishment of whomever kills that person.
If I get over that guy being a clown, but later on he pisses on my cornflakes and I kill him for that, does that make me any less a murderer? Should I be punished less because it was him I hated and not clowns in general? Or will people look at the hate crimes list and say 'oh wait, clowns are special, so this guy killed the clown because he's a clownophobe' and punish me accordingly?
I must be missing something here.
