It is remarkable in the extreme, to me, that people actually argue that we should have no such thing as "hate crime" laws.

There are really people who think that there is no difference between beating a child for being "brown" as part of a recruiting drive for the KKK, than to beat any child for no reason at all.

The would argue that demanding an extra penalty for participating in a Klan activity intended to inflame the passions of other people who would like to beat "brown" children, with the intent of recruiting them to advance the cause of being able to beat "brown" children any time they feel they want to, to incite more people to abuse minorities somehow minimizes the horrible nature of beating any child.

They don't think that using the beating of a child to inflame passions against minorities, promote membership in a hate organization, make a political statement, and incite and embolden further violence adds any kind of demension to the crime that should change the nature of the punishment.

In fact, to suggest that it does, in fact add a new demension to the crime has become extremely politically incorrect.

In which case, one wonders why they don't view terrorism as "simple murder".