How a skinny, or gay, or fat, or white a non-victim of a particular crime "feels" about it is, or should be, entirely irrelevant, IMO. This goes beyond my previous post about the dangers of prosecuting people for their own thoughts or emotions, and travels into the uncharted and perilous region of prosecuting people for other peoples' thoughts or emotions.
That's a very bad place.
I disagree because I don’t agree with your framing.
Hate crimes (which are treated as additional crimes separate from the assault, vandalism, murder, etc) are a different beast because they are crimes which intend to cause fear in people other than the target of the crime. A hate crime, by virtue of motivation, intimidates a group of private citizens belonging to a certain category which is already subject to a Sword of Damocles.
The original crime is of course prosecuted, but any additional effects (social unrest, fear, terrorism) or intent of the crime, which compounds its abhorrence, will be prosecuted via a “hate crime”.
bttt