Discussion: Hate Crime Charges Considered In Deadly Anti-Muslim Attack In Portland

Can’t Trump be charged with conspiracy to hate?

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Considered?

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How can it be anything other than a hate crime?

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Well, I hadn’t considered that, but it seems plausible.

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And Trump still hasn’t spoken out about this.

So is it a hate crime when the President apparently doesn’t seem to hate it? Rhetorical question.

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You have to understand that “hate crime” is just a means to make this into a federal crime since there is no general federal statute against murder. The FBI often investigates local murders as hate crimes, but federal charges are usually only brought if state or local authorities decline to prosecute.

Of course it’s a hate crime, but there are strict criteria for classifying it as such in federal law.

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I would be more interested in whether this will be treated as terrorism. This will have a chilling effect on whether people will step in to confront aggressors in similar situations. I pretty sure I’ll hesitate to intervene if I saw someone acting like this - that’s cowardice maybe, but I’m not going to claim I’ll be a hero unless I’m actually faced with it. I don’t know how I’ll react.

As someone who grew up in Northern Ireland, I’ll say that terrorism is more concerned with spreading fear than the numbers of people getting hurt. If you can change behavior through fear, you’ve achieved your objective, and hurting one or two people can and will affect the behavior of thousands more people.

Christian’s social media postings indicate an affinity for Nazis and political violence.

And for Trumpp, but I’m being redundant.

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It won’t be. It should be. It is (slightly) more likely to be if Democrats routinely use the term to describe such acts.

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Do you think? These conservative haters can’t wait to act on their base instincts.

Good point. Republicans made hay off the term “domestic terrorism” when the Far Left was going crazy. It’s our turn now.

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Duh! If this isn’t considered a hate crime then what is.

Considered?

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