It's Now a Hate Crime to Vandalize Teslas in DC | Hacker News Reader

It's Now a Hate Crime to Vandalize Teslas in DC

politico.com

Calling vandalising a particular brand of car a hate crime? That's a big stretch.

For the record, I'm not a fan of Musk or Tesla. That said, I don't agree with damaging private property to make a point about either of them. I do, however, support the Tesla Takedown protests and hope that they can continue peacefully. With this administration, those protests will probably be outlawed before we know it.

I can see it making sense. An entire class of people are now afraid and feel targeted because they happen to own a particular brand of car. Random attacks aren't hate crimes, but attacks targeting a protected class are. DC apparently now defines "own a Tesla" as a protected class.

As a Tesla owner, I welcome and support this. I'm more likely to be victimized by vandalism because someone hates my car for political reasons. Doesn't seem fair. Society has decided that victimizing people for characteristics (hate) is worse than randomly victimizing people because "Hate crime victims include not only the crime’s immediate target but also others like them" (https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/learn-about-hate-crimes). So I'm glad to see it applied in this case.

Just for context here, an increased possibility of suffering property damage is one of the tamest politically-driven injustices occurring these days. Contrast it with say, being disappeared off of the street for having said the wrong thing.

I agree that we're in dire need of law and order. The fish rots from the head - we can only repair our society by demanding accountability for the lawless gangsters destroying it from the top.

Are Tesla owners a protected class?

The notional protected class here appears to be holders of particular political views, not Tesla owners.

The "Oh, I'm special because I drive a Tesla" defense. No, people who drive Teslas aren't special or protected. They just drive a particular brand of EV.

That could cover Tesla owners, because they are assumed by the perpetrators to hold certain political views, evidenced by owning that car, which is why it is okay to destroy their property.

If you are mistaken for Jew by coincidence due to the way your face is, and are subject to an anti-Semitic attack, you are virtually a Jew then; it is a hate crime and you are the victim. It's not simply that Jews, as a class, are the victims of the hate crime part of it, and you are just the victim of plain attack.

The perpetrators know full well that most Tesla owners are Democrats.

They are using violence to try and hurt Tesla's business and make people afraid to buy their cars.

A lot of people have bought a tesla believing in the decarbonization effort and now since the tides have shifted they're become target of vandalisation attacks.

It's just unfair.

The sad thing is that the decarbonization effort was a really strong left/liberal thing. And Tesla cars are now being vandalized by left/liberal extremists. Had those Tesla cars owners bought an petrol-fueled cars they'd have less issues right now.

Whoa whoa... "An entire class of people..." you can't just smuggle that assumption in. What class? What do you have in common?

I wouldn't call it a hate crime, and I'm not a fan of the "hate crime" classification in general, but there is hate involved. Every conversation I've seen online about an incident of Tesla vandalism has degenerated into a series of screeds about Elon Musk and a lot of dogpiling. Suggestions that maybe car selections of individual people don't amount to an unfettered endorsement of Elon Musk don't make much headway.

People aren't vandalizing Teslas as some kind of new tide pod thing.

Vandalizing is a crime against someone else's property. A hate crime is action taken against another person with special circumstances relating to race, creed, or religion. Applying hate crime to a property crime is absurd and, should a person ever be prosecuted under this ridiculous law, I expect a competent attorney will have it thrown out of court tout suite.

> Applying hate crime to a property crime is absurd

https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/learn-about-hate-crimes

> The "crime" in hate crime is often a violent crime, such as assault, murder, arson, vandalism, or threats to commit such crimes.

And not just in theory: https://www.newsweek.com/pride-flag-burned-california-school...

We just need New York, California and the EU to ban cameras-only self-driving cars. The vandalism is understandable but ineffective and petty.

Unless it works. If it works Self driving cars will save thousands of lives. Camera only self driving is 1/10th the cost of Lidar based solutions.

If you ban it you are literally killing and maiming people.

> Unless it works. If it works Self driving cars will save thousands of lives

Sure. We don't know if it works. We know Musk is causing clear and present harm to the constituents of those jurisdictions, and that Tesla isn't the only option for self driving. Forcing them through extra scrutiny is a win-win.

> If you ban it you are literally killing and maiming people

No. You're statistically killing people to the extent those cars would be bought. With Tesla sales crashing in blue states, the comparative cost is less.

Evidence so far is against it working. FSD is the ivermectin of AVs.

I use FSD everyday. It's spectacular and improving dramatically over time.

Is it spectacular enough to take a nap in the back seat? OTOH would you worry about falling asleep in a Waymo after a night out?

Hate crimes are supposed to apply to so-called protected classes. Who's the protected class here? Teslas? Elon?

Billionaires and their right to make a profit.

So, DEI for Tesla owners. Got it.

They're calling vandalizing Teslas a hate crime while they themselves are demonizing trans people and sending brown people to prison camps to be tortured...

Every accusation is an admission. It's the grown up version of basic bully gaslighting - "stop hitting yourself", "he just went crazy and started attacking me", "stop making a scene", etc.

None of their invocations of higher ideals survive scrutiny, which is why trying to engage with their supporters about what they claim to want never succeeds at finding any common ground. The only thing they actually seem to want is to hurt people while being righteous.

(and I'm sure any partisans reading this comment will have latched onto that last sentence to "both sides" it, completely ignoring the good-faith frustration of the preceding sentence while eagerly embracing the dynamic of writing people off)

Everyone thinks the Tesla vandalism is hurting Elon Musk, but it is the insurance companies that will pay. And I am certain that auto insurance rates will be increasing substantially for everyone in the very near future.

For everyone who owns a Tesla

You assume insurance company will not exploit this issue to raise insurance prices for everybody.

Insurance companies aren't really the most ethical category of businesses.

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