http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/8212685/detail.html

Here's what I'm getting out of this story. Everybody gets a hate crime bill, niggers, jews, mexicans, faggots, lesbians, and now the homeless.

This tells me, a White Male, is considered lower, then the sludge, I mentioned above.

What a sick, fuckin world. Then again, most of the homeless, are White Males, cause some blubberlipped, affirmative action, shithead, has his job.

Bill Would Protect Homeless From Hate Crimes
Lawmakers Explore Limits Of Hate Crime Laws
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Racial and ethnic minorities are protected under Maryland hate crime laws, but what about homeless people? Or women? Or members of the military?

The Maryland Senate is debating the limits of the state's hate crime law, which calls for extra penalties for violent crimes when it can be proven that the perpetrators chose their victims because of their race, religion, national origin or sexual orientation.

A bill before the Senate Thursday sparked a discussion of how far hate crimes laws should go. Under the bill, homelessness would also be a criteria for prosecution of a hate crime. The bill's sponsor -- Western Maryland Sen. Alex Mooney, R-District 3 -- talked about homeless men who'd be beaten by people who considered them "trash" or "bums."

The Senate debated who should be covered under hate crimes laws.

Baltimore County Sen. Delores Kelley, D-District 10, questioned whether it would be easy to determine who is homeless. What about rich people who crash with friends instead of getting their own home? she asked.

Montgomery County Sen. Sharon Grosfeld, D-District 18, suggested adding gender to the hate crime list. That proposal was rejected.

"I don't think we ought to add it on the floor just because it seems like a good idea," said Montgomery County Sen. Brian Frosh, D-District 16, who said there ought to be more study before adding gender to the law.

Senators also rejected Grosfeld's next idea, to add handicapped people to the law. Lawmakers have yet to consider separate bills that would add military veterans or service members to the list.

Hate Crime Law's Evolution

Maryland's hate crime law has not been easy for lawmakers to tweak. Last year, they voted to add sexual orientation to the list, responding at last to years of lobbying by gay rights groups. The addition of the homeless to the list faces uncertain prospects in the House.

A professor who studies hate crimes, Jack Levin, of Northeastern University, said he wasn't aware of any other states that have made homeless people a covered class under hate crimes laws. But he noted that some places have added other distinctive classes, such as union members.

"I think that homeless people are vulnerable," said Levin, who is director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern.

"But I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to include every vulnerable group under the sun. It waters it down," he said.

His sentiment was echoed by Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, who said that adding too many groups minimizes the threat of violence faced by minorities and gays and lesbians.

"It's insulting," Furmansky said.

Anne Arundel County Sen. John Astle, D-District 30, wondered aloud whether lawmakers should keep adding groups of people to the hate crime law.

"Maybe we ought to just make murder a hate crime and ratchet up the penalty for murder," he said.

The Senate must give the homelessness bill a final approval before it heads to the House.