" Hate crime " - a muddled concept

 I just heard on the radio that Mathew Shepard -a possible

    victim of " hate crime " - has died. And I just read Rick Sundin's letter

    to USA TODAY : " Beating shows need for hate-crime laws ".

             Shepard was an out of the closet gay person . Sundin wrote:

    " What happened to him was a blatant hate crime . Period . "

          Here Sundin is both grammatically and politically correct. But is

    he right ?  What if the girl involved was telling the truth... she

    insisted it was not a hate crime !

            Ridiculous !  It must be the routine experience of police

    everywhere to find crime victims tortured and beaten to a pulp - with

    the only motivation being robbery - often petty robbery .

            Is it any consolation to these routine victims that they were

    NOT the objects of a hate crime ?

           It is against the law to beat, rob, and torture people. Period!

       The concept of hate crime - with the exception of organized genocide -

    can get very muddled.

             Is not the death penalty in this country a form of collective

    hate crime ? Too many of us just hate to think !