Hate crimes are crimes that are committed against a certain group of people. The crime itself may be against one member of a group, or a symbol of a group, meaning to impact the group as a whole. A hate crime is any "crime or treat against persons because of their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, or sensory handicaps." (McIntyre, 28).
The legislature finds these crimes to be "serious and increasing" which was brought to light by numerous organizations, particularly ones that have been under attack from these hate crimes. There needs to be an emphasis put on hate crimes because their impact on not only the individual victim involved but on the group that the individual is a member of. These crimes have to be looked at differently because when a person is beaten and tied to a fence because he is gay there is more going on than a high school prank. The fact that the kid is being judged by his sexual orientation is just like judging someone, as Martin Luther King puts it, "by the color of their skin not the quality of their character." People should not be judged by any personal choices they make, or by acts of God (considering that a person's national origin and things of that sort are out of their hands). So the legislature is recognizing the fact that random people are being targeted just because someone does not share the same beliefs, or come from the same country, or what ever the reasons. These types of crimes have to stop in order to even remotely have equality among our nation.
The fact of hate crimes is that they pick on smaller more vulnerable groups that probably do not have the means or even the willpower or manpower to fight back. Nonpersons may be the victims of hate crimes more frequently because of that vulnerability. Because nonpersons can not call upon the sovereign if they are the victim of a hate crime, they are going to become victims more and more.
