Common sense needs to assume its rightful position in this type of thing at some point. The Matthew Shepherd incident was an obvious and despicable hate crime. If a white guy robs a black (or Hispanic or Jewish or Muslim or....whoever), extenuating circumstances should be considered since the main object of the crime was simply to rob someone, not necessarily because of their ethnicity or religion or sexual preference or whatever. However, if said robber creates a pattern where he only robs people of a certain persuasion, it could definitely be construed as a hate crime.
It could work the other way as well if it were a upper-middle class WASP who was being targeted. It doesn't refer only to minorities. Hate is hate....period.
And there are already mandated penalties for all those crimes, no real need to add even more time for some perception of a political theory.
A smart criminal could target a mostly Black neighborhood for reasons unrelated to "hate" and still get charged on appearances alone with more than the lawful penalty mandated for burglary.
I see no useful purpose to give a loaded weapon to an aggressive DA to add time for his own reasons, and not for some perceived "hate"...would all bikers be charged extra and no Blacks or ordinary Whites and Messicans? We all "know" Bikers hate everyone else not a biker...Hate Crime!
Did you use ethnic slurs to frighten the victim and keep him too scared to fight back? Hate Crime!
Did you murder someone who turned out to be someone you hated (gay) as well as just someone to beat the shit out of (random guy)? Hate Crime!
Matthew Shepherd's killers got nailed for their actions, hate or not they got nailed big time for 1st Degree Murder...didn't they?
I mean a lot of armed perps hate Blacks, or Whites, or Mexicans, or Gays, or Jews, or Catholics...hell, they hate a lot of people and dislike everyone else...no hate crime attachment is needed after they get the maximum penalty for the crime...and it wouldn't be actually correct under the basic idea of a crime committed only for a hate reason...I see no difference.
I hate ALL discrimination under the law.