Killing a person during a robbery is a hate crime. It doesn't matter. When you have the power to give life or take it and you choose to take it then you have committed a hate crime (IMHO). I define "hate" as the absence of love or caring. I don't believe that it has to be cultivated to be called hate. Her disrespect for human life is just as heinous as those boys in Laramie. No she didn't seek out this man but she killed him without regard for his life. That is hate in my book. I don't let the government define my moral and ethical values.......totally. I just disagree that there should be hate crime laws. It devalues the lives of those who were killed just because they were weaker than the criminal. It tells the mother of the little girl that was raped, tortured and murdered that somehow her child's murderer isn't as bad as someone who had done it for racial reasons. I don't think we should put different values on human lives. It is divisive.
TimB