Last week in the Philadephia, (the city of brotherly love) approximately 12 individuals severely beat two gay individuals who were minding their own business. They were hurt so badly, that when the police arrived, they thought there had been a shooting because there was so much blood. They were walking down the street, minding their own business when one of them was asked if the other was his boyfriend. He answered yes, and then the pummeling began.
After video showing the perpetrators was released by the police department in hopes of helping identify them, it was only a matter of time before they were identified. It turns out, that one of the men who participated in the beating, was an assistant coach in a Catholic high school and several of the others, were former students of this high school. I guess this doesn't speak too highly of their Christian upbringing, that they would think it's okay to beat the carp out of a couple of gay men.
It appears that our federal government has been asked to prosecute these individuals based on federal hate crime laws that were inacted in the aftermath of the beating and murder of Matthew Shepard several years ago. Although there are hate-crime laws in Philadelphia, gay individuals are not included in the criteria for hate crimes.
Do you think there should be hate-crime laws or should people only be charged with regular crimes when they break the law, for no other reason than their hatred of certain groups of people?
