Kentucky Passes 'Blue Lives Matter' Law making it hate crime to attack cops

[pbrower2a]

Do we have a hate crimes statute for attacking people for having 'noble' professions?

Many criminals think it acceptable to attack and even kill people for being prostitutes. Should we have a hate crimes statute for that?

Ethnicity, race, religion, handicap, social class, and gender identity might be cause to have protections against crimes directed at people for what they are. Genocide and genocide-like crimes are the definitive hate crimes, and the path to those crimes begins with smaller-scale hate crimes.

Hate crimes statutes are ordinarily leveled at crimes less egregious than murder.  I can see how "Class of '20" or "Eddie + Susan 4ever" as graffiti are much less troublesome than a swastika or Nazi slogans daubed on 'Temple Beth Shalom'. "Off a Pig Today" on a cop's property? Interesting comparison. 

[pbrower2a]

I know that hate crimes are a thing because of the racists, but I wonder why a racist killer can't just go to jail for murder, rather than getting an extra 5 years because he's racist. I also wonder why the murderer Dylann Roof stood in front of a Federal jury instead of a state jury, considering he did not commit his crime on Federal property.

The idea that the Federal government should step in because the crime was done for racist reasons seemingly violates the Constitution. I really wonder if the Supreme Court would agree with me. Think about it for a few seconds, and you might.

Hate crimes legislation is appropriate for augmenting what is usually a misdemeanor (like vandalism) into a felony. If someone sprays swastikas and neo-Nazi slogans on my property (I'm not Jewish, but even in mistaken identity it would be a hate crime)  I would press hate-crime charges  in addition to vandalism. I might go leniently on an offender who shows contrition and begins to recognize how horrible the stuff is.  The person who has no commitment to hate groups might break if he were shown what the stuff really means.

I'd also take great offense at "off a Pig Today!" even if I am not a cop. 

[pbrower2a]

I think people need to show more deference to the police. The police are not the ones to send one to long prison terms or to Death Row; the courts of law do that.
 
Because most meetings with the police are at traffic stops, some states have been introducing simulated traffic stops in driver's training. Having been stopped four times in the last ten years (three for speeding and one for suspected DUI -- It was 1AM, I was tired upon leaving the hospital after taking my father there, and a traffic sign confused me -- and I saw a car with its lights out and was concerned that it was someone planning to rear end me in an insurance fraud... the car was a state police car whose driver was on "drunk patrol". I had not been drinking, which the state trooper quickly ascertained after pulling me over).

Drive sober or get pulled over? Drive sober and you still might get pulled over.   

[pbrower2a]

Do we have a hate crimes statute for attacking people for having 'noble' professions?

Many criminals think it acceptable to attack and even kill people for being prostitutes. Should we have a hate crimes statute for that?

Ethnicity, race, religion, handicap, social class, and gender identity might be cause to have protections against crimes directed at people for what they are. Genocide and genocide-like crimes are the definitive hate crimes, and the path to those crimes begins with smaller-scale hate crimes.

Hate crimes statutes are ordinarily leveled at crimes less egregious than murder.  I can see how "Class of '20" or "Eddie + Susan 4ever" as graffiti are much less troublesome than a swastika or Nazi slogans daubed on 'Temple Beth Shalom'. "Off a Pig Today" on a cop's property? Interesting comparison. 

Isn't the theory behind hate crimes legislation the idea that someone is terrorizing all members of a group through their actions?  In that case I don't see why we wouldn't have those protections for prostitutes.

We would be better off to legalize and regulate prostitution. Prostitutes are usually victims. It would be better if they could turn to the cops for protection than to pimps for survival.