On the air Friday morning Amy Sasfai and I were talking about Hate Crimes Legislation defeated in Harrisburgh. My first thought was "how do you determine anything is a hate crime. Isn't "Hate" a state of mind? If so, how do you determine someones state of mind? I can't read minds, can you? Unless someone yells for the world to hear "I am killing this person because he is black!" or "I am attacking you because your are a woman and I hate women!" or...you get the idea. When you present evidence in court, how do you show the defendants state of mind at the time of the crime. Maybe someday we will be able to put people in a scanner and see their 'hate' center glowing like the Aurora Borealis, but not yet.

Now there are several cases where a group attacked and killed someone simply because they were gay. Beaten and killed horribly, and the vermin who perpetrated this crime were proud of what they did. They proclaimed they rid the earth of someone they declared unworthy of life. These cases are subjects of "Hate Crimes".

This is my problem. If you have testimony that hate is involved, its one thing, but if a jury is expected to rule on whats going on in someones mind, that is a slippery slope I cant accept. Can't we see a time when a jury is called on to determine the 'Degree of Hate" involved in a crime. Just picture it, 'Hate in the First Degree' 'Hate in the Second Degree' and more. Guilty with just a 'hint of hatred'.

I dont think we need new laws on the books. We need to enforce the ones we have equealy and fairly, not one set of rules for the rich and powerful and another for those of us on the lower stratta of society.

'Justice for all' from the Pledge of Allegance should be our goal and Justice should be administered evenly. We get this one done, and the rest will take care of itself.