It might be tempting to conclude that jealousies and resentments over exclusions from the hate crime laws can be avoided by drafting these laws to include all salient prejudices. Hate crime laws only make sense if certain bigoted offenders are condemned more forcefully and punished more severely than offenders who commit the same crime but for nonprejudiced reasons. It is the exclusion that gives these laws their symbolic power and meaning. Hate Crimes Are Not Uniquely Frightening. It is an axiom among supporters of hate crimes laws that hate crimes themselves are especially frightening or destructive.
Hate crimes are uniquely destructive and divisive.
They injure not only the immediate victim, but the entire community and sometimes the entire country. One need only consider the effect of school shootings or a bombing or a series of child abductions or a serial killer to see that hate crimes are not uniquely threatening. Hate Crimes and All Crimes. Some hate crimes are especially brutal and frightening, but most are not. Senator Kennedy wants us to believe that the hate crimes are the more frightening.