Just because we don't agree on something doesn't mean I need to be educated.

I'm telling you that I don't give a rat's ass what's going through the mind of someone who commits murder, rape, assault, or to use your analogy...sets fire to a garbage can or a cross. Does a spontaneous crime of passion result in the victim being any less dead than a planned and calculated attack? Does the family left behind feel any more comfort? If the laws we already have were enforced correctly, we wouldn't need new ones designed specifically around personal crimes. Does anyone think that if hate crimes legislation was in existance in 1880 that the lynching of African-Americans wouldn't have taken place? The problem wasn't what the crime was called...it was that the laws on the books weren't being enforced. And in my opinion, that's what the problem is today. People feel free to run amok doing whatever they damn well please with little or no fear of reprocussions and absolutely no respect for others on this planet. We are living in a world where nobody gives a flying fuck about anyone but themselves, and the sense of entitlement & privilege overrule the importance of recognizing that we are a society. And when they break the law...it takes two years to go to trial! For crying out loud, it took 18 years for Connecticut to execute a serial killer that admitted to killing 4 young women! 18 years! And that he preyed upon young white girls versus college aged homosexuals or senior citizen rabbis is irrellevant.

I'm way off topic now, but the jist of my mindframe is that it is my opinion that existing laws need to be enforced, not rewritten.