Hate Crime Laws: Do they spread more hate?

Just a few days ago, a 13 year old boy in Kansas City was chased down and doused with gasoline as he was trying to seek protection in his own house. He was on the front porch of the home trying to get in when the two teenage aggressors flipped a bic lighter and said "This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve white boy" as they lit him on fire!

Read the original story here.

The boy was able to put out the fire and call 911, but his hair is burned off, he suffered 1st degree burns to his face, and the doctor's have concerns about his eyes and lungs.

The victim was a white 13 year old boy. The perpetrators were two black teenagers.

Now imagine if the boy who was set on fire was black and the perps were white. This story would be on every front page, it would get hours and hours of TV coverage, and Rev Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be setting up rally's and screaming about hate crimes.

So what is different about this story? Last time I checked, if you dislike someone enough to set them on fire, it goes without saying that you probably hate them. Shouldn't these two teenagers be charged with a hate crime?

The fact is, in most cases, hate crime charges are only filed if a crime was committed by a white perpetrator against a member of a minority race. So white folks are the only folks capable of hate?

I am not trying to say that racism and hate do not exist. They do. And I think that this hate crime legistlation makes things worse. Last time I checked, the U.S. Constitution affords all U.S. Citizens equal protection under the law. (see the 14th Ammendment, Section I here)

Equal protection means that we should all be protected against hate crimes and any other crimes equally. That means all written law must apply to everyone. Justice cannot be applied selectively. Either a law applies to everyone, or it applies to no one. Blind Justice cannot peek from behind her blindfold to see what color skin a person has.

When legislation such as hate crime legislation is not applied to all citizens equally, it creates more animosity and hate due to the injustice and hypocracy of the system, which further divides us and has a negative impact on race relations.

Your thoughts?