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Punishable Hate Crimes

crime is a crime no matter the rhyme or reason. The question is should morals affect the ramifications of the law? Whether a person is stabbed for money or because of race, the fact is that they were stabbed. When it comes to the law, one should not be punished for their motives, but for their actions. Not for the reasons they did it, but because they committed a crime.
As defined by our federal government, a hate crime is a criminal offense committed against a person or property motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a racial group, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, or disability; while battery is defined as the unlawful and unwanted touching or striking of one person by another, with the intention of bringing about a harmful or offensive contact.
Hate crimes should be punished, but they should not be punished more seriously than any other account of battery. Based upon morals, hate crimes are more offensive than battery crimes, but we cannot let morals subdivide our laws. We are entitled to express the way we feel, but it is when we cross that line and become violent is when we should be punished; punished for our actions, not for our bias.
If a change should occur to hate crime laws, it should be to eliminate the intimidation factor. In most cases this seems unnecessary. To charge one for making a derogatory comment about ones race or religion is absurd. I understand that these words are hurtful, but I would like to think that the victim would have a higher maturity level that the one saying such juvenile remarks. There is too much flexibility with intimidation. Intimidation is too large of a variable from victim to victim. One should only be charged with a crime if physical confrontation or argot vandalism occurs [including any offensive words or symbolism written on one’s property].
Even though there shouldn’t be harsher punishments for hate crimes, they should be dealt with differently, especially when dealing...