It is all about machoism, money, and religion. And that is what gave our nation this tragedy.

Along with the right wing republicans who got elected on a platform of hating gays.

And the Alliance Defense Fund in AZ, anoher hate group, who seeing they were starting to lose re gays, have targetted the transgender community. So nice to see them get their faces smashed here in MD by the courts.

There ought to be a law – that hate crimes, and the people who cause them by getting others to do their dirty work, are all guilty of conspiracy in these events.

Crime is Crime is Crime. It’s either done with or without malice. I can assure you that I would want someone prosecuted to the same extent if they killed a gay friend or a straight friend.

A hate crime isn’t a crime perpetrated against you. It is considered a crime against society. So, double jeopardy doesn’t apply because they’re separate offenses which stem from the same acts.

It is similar to how they can nail you for robbery, concealed weapons charges, and assault with a deadly weapon (from a single incident). And that’s precisely what Chief Justice William Rehnquist – who’s certainly no liberal – said when the high court upheld the constitutionality of these laws. He also stated that since many other laws regulate conduct that “incites unrest in the community,” the freedom of expression matter should be subjected to a simple “rational basis” test. Do the states have a legitimate reason to restrict such behavior? The unanimous answer of the high court – including arch-conservatives Scalia and Thomas BTW – was: yes.

Essentially, murder is “malum en se” (evil in itself). There’s an indvidual victim and the underlying act is always wrong. The hate crime statutes, in contrast, are “mala prohibita” (evil by convention). A claim has been made – by the legislature and prosecuting authority – that such behavior constitutes a substantive threat to the moral welfare of society at-large. Therefore, the victim of hate crimes isn’t the dead person, but “The People” or (in the case of monarchies) “The Crown” itself.

If someone intentionally does harm to another, I want them punished to the full extent of the law. I don’t care if they’re 9, 90 or 190; there is a price to pay.

On the other hand, if a victim (gay or straight) is robbed or murdered only for the usual reasons, he should NOT be charged with a hate crime. Some people–gay or straight–are robbed, assaulted or murdered not for being–or seeming to be–gay, but just for being a convenient target or for some entirely different reason than their sexual orientation, the perp shouldn’t be charged with a hate crime.

Give his father the option to go to jail with him and split his term. That man obviously instilled some hatred in his son, and if he doesn’t think the sentance is fair, cut it in half by sharing it.

That only after we figure out where he got the gun from..if from his father, then he should be tried on his own charges.

People should be responsible for the actions of their children if they don’t want their children tried as adults. And they should be hauled in on negligence or negatively influencing a minor charges if it can be shown they prodded this behaviour by making a gun available or teaching them to hate. Breeders let their children run around restaurants, disturb us on flights, make the mall and Walmart TOTALLY off limits for me due to not being able to stand their behaviour and there are no consequences. Why don’t parents get ticketed when their children are ill-behaved (I remember behaving poorly in public only once…because I really remember the big slap I received for it).

This case points to lack of parental responsibility and lack of the parents accepting the consequences of their actions. They should have the child plead not guilty, forget the lawyer and throw him away. They already failed him, it is too late.

And let’s not make excuses for this kid, he was confused, might be gay himself etc. b.s.! We all knew bullies when we were young, and all the ones in my town ended up losers. These kids are not just adolescents that need to grow up, they are parental failures and should be held accountable for their actions. We simply need a tough society to shame parents out of producing such horrible little people instead of making excuses. We are not a tough enough society on the real issues like bad parenting, instead we focus on “immoral” acts that religious people can’t stand like alcohol consumption and sex. It is pathetic what now passes as acceptable behavior. We need to speak out.