I think there needs to be a balance. If it's an obvious hate crime i.e. purposefully spreading ideas of prejudice and hate (propaganda) then it deserves worse punishment because it is spreading lies and intolerance.

And I'm talkin like high profile kkk kinda thing not like some random isolated incident of racism.

The purpose of the court system is to serve justice. If the punishment doesn't fit the crime than it isn't justice. It isn't the thought that determines how bad a crime is, but what the crime in and of itself was. There is a reason why the lady with the scales wears a blindfold, and thats because justice without her blindfold is vengeance.

If a man punches another man in the face because of religious differences, he should be punished.

If a man punches another man in the face because of some fight at a football game, he should be punished.

if both are punished with the same sentence then there is a clear message that religious discrimination is OK.

ALTHOUGH if said man punches man of different religion in face for sleeping with his wife, then religious hate cannot be brought into question, PC gone mad.

On another note, although I hate smoking I am passionately against the smoking ban ;)

reason for the crime is important too, was it a one off brawl in a pub or is the bastard going to go out and slay every black man he sees?

yeah but thats not how things work, i know a kid that got in trouble for a "hate crime" he told a Hispanic kid to leave were a bunch of people were hanging out cause the kids was threatening them, the kid then went to the police saying that the told him to leave the parking lot cause he was Hispanic.

'So you're in favor of policing people's thoughts? And you're against freedom of expression? Every crime is motivated by hate/greed/lust etc, people get punished for what they do, it's not for us to judge people's motives. Self defense is an exception of course.'
To quote myself. How can you quantify how bad someone's motives are? Hey you, you killed a that man because he was black, 5 extra years! See what I'm saying?

Well there is always something like this, but in more severe cases racial hate is always checked out.

I'm not saying all hate crimes deserve worse punishment, just the ones that also spread propaganda/lies because to me that is a crime in and of itself.

errr no because that IS what I think?

Because something is doesn't mean it should.

Uh, what?

what? :(