• @AA5B@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      27 hours ago

      if you do it deliberately it’s no different to any other weapon.

      Of course but at least there’s the possibility of it being an accident. Absent other proof, such as that possession of a manifesto, you can quite possibly get away with it

      On the other hand there’s no way to spin as an accident that you walked up behind someone and shot them

      • @Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        17 hours ago

        It would be a difficult argument to make if you ran them over on the sidewalk though.

        It’s not the weapon, it’s the plausible deniability.

    • @optissima@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      1518 hours ago

      Your example is weak because they did a hate crime, which this would not have been. Do you have a better one?

      • @Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        29 hours ago

        My point is, you don’t get away with killing someone just because you used a car to do so, and I think that proves my point.

        Feel free to come up with some evidence of your own.

      • @SanctimoniousApe
        link
        013 hours ago

        Well, technically this seems to have been a hate crime as well - just not of a “protected class” (which I’m sure is a “shortcoming” of the law that they’ll get “addressed”).

        • @optissima@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          212 hours ago

          Technically, hate crimes consist of crime because of innate properties of an individual (+religion), which again this isn’t. No doubt they’ll codify something special for the rich soon, but still not a hate crime.

          • @SanctimoniousApe
            link
            17 hours ago

            It’s that religion exception that belies the idea that it’s solely about qualities of a person that they have no control over. Beliefs are beliefs, regardless if they’re related to religion or capitalism.

            • @zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              17 hours ago

              “Capitalist” isn’t a protected class, and I don’t think that hate crime legislation is very strong in the US in any case.

              • @SanctimoniousApe
                link
                1
                edit-2
                6 hours ago

                I’m aware it’s not a protected class - that was the point of my initial comment. But your rebuttal implied “hate crimes” were defined as those based upon properties of a person they had no control over - with a major caveat for religion as well. My point was if you can include something a person chooses to believe as an additional exception, then that opens up an extremely wide swath of possible exceptions.

                Don’t get me wrong - I’m not arguing against the inclusion of religion, just saying that the inclusion can be used to crowbar in any number of other “classes” to be protected as well simply because they’re based upon beliefs.