Hate Crime Protection because Gays are Weak?

That's the message of several bloggers who are using the Michael Sandy case as an example of why gays need hate crime protection.

Michael Sandy was a gay man who was lured to a Brooklyn location by three men after an online chat. According to Pam, their intent was rob him believing him weak because he was gay.

Sandy fled his assailants, climbed a fence and hoped onto the Belt Parkway, where he was struck by a car. The three assailants then searched him for drugs and money and, finding none, they went home and drank beer. Sandy later died.

These three thugs deserve harsh sentences because of what they did, not because of what they thought. Selling legislators on the idea that gays are targeted because people think we are weak and therefore we need special protection serves us in the long run how? Yes, surely some people target gays because they think we may be an easy mark, or because they hate us, but people are targeted for all kinds of reasons -- from the clothes they wear to the neighborhoods they live in.

Sandy's assailants should be dealt with severely -- not because of who Sandy was but because of what they did to him.