"Hate Crime = Thought Crime"

The argument that distinguishing between common crimes and hate crimes is a method of policing thought-crime would seem a most cynical ploy by those who wish to defend bigoted belligerence.  Long before Orwell, legal distinctions distinctions were made upon crimes based upon intent.  Even the ancient Law of Moses made the distinction between accidental manslaughter and murder, and provided means by which one who committed the former could take refuge from vengeance.  As civil law entered the modern age, new terms of distinction such as "malice aforethought," "premeditated murder," and "aggravated murder" entered the legal as well as the common vernacular.  The notion that criminal law ought to take notice of actions only is to ignore the history of jurisprudence.