With all the uproar over the recent hate crimes legislation and President Bush's threatened veto, I wonder if there might not be a truly equal solution for the problem.
Instead of establishing certain protected groups, why not define a "hate crime" as any crime of violence for which the primary motive is the victim's being part of an identifiable group of people? Doesn't matter if you are black, gay, Asian, white, left-handed, a San Diego Chargers fan, a federal judge...if the attacker was motivated less by anything you as an individual did and more by the fact that you are part of a specific group, then a special sentencing guideline would kick in.
This solution appropriately punishes crimes motivated by hatred of a group, yet excludes no one. Most hate crimes would likely still be perpetrated against gay people and people of color, but judges and juries would have additional options for dealing with cases like the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict, when some black people went on a rampage and took out their anger on white people simply because they were white, and they were at hand.
Seems fair to me.
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