Pardon the BloggEruption

Stories like this one just infuriate me. Seriously, I feel sorry for the kid and what he's been through, but doesn't the fact that his assailants received sentences of life and 90 years sort of render his crusade a bit pointless?

Laws don't prevent crimes in and of themselves. No hate crime legislation would make an attacker think twice about perpetrating a crime. Aside from being completely useless, they serve only to criminalize thought, which is a very treacherous path. It would be nice if everyone loved everyone else, the whole world got along, and there was no tangible hate in the world. Yes, it would be very nice, indeed. But we don't live in Candyland, and if someone wants to hold hate in his heart against someone because of something utterly ridiculous like skin color or surname, I don't want to make that a state offense. Once he acts on that hate by assaulting someone, then we can take all the legal action we want ... and we pretty well do. The same sort of refrain went around when the tragic murder of James Byrd happened back in the late 90s. The killers received sentences of death or life in prison. Should we give them a double lethal dose?

It's pointless. It sets a very dangerous precedent. It's just bad policy.