One more example of the sillyness of hate crimes

Apparently, on Halloween 2007 a group of black and Hispanic kids beat up a group of white kids in Howard Beach (NYC). Some of the black kids shouted "I'm going to kill you, you white motherfuckers."
Now I feel, as you all know, that the very concept of a thought crime is reprehensible. And find it more than a little ironic that the same people that think that Bush & Co. are bringing fascism and a police state think nothing of enforcing "guess-what-the-perp-was-thinking-and-feeling" statutes.

These same knuckleheads (supporters of hate crimes) would be the first to tell you how inaccurate eye witnesses are, and yet they believe they have the insight into a person's mind to tell you if an epithet was a generic insult or based on racial hatred.