As I understand it, legislation defining hate crimes addresses a very real issue: By creating a threatening environment hate crimes can cause dramatically more

As I understand it, legislation defining hate crimes addresses a very real issue: By creating a threatening environment hate crimes can cause dramatically more damage than what the base crime itself would suggest. For example, the minor punishments associated with trespassing and vandalism don't seem proportionate to the harm caused by the Klan burning a cross in someone's front yard. Without hate crime legislation, it would be easy for bigots to harass people via what the law would see as minor crimes. So I'm not necessarily opposed to getting rid of hate crime legislation. However, we would need some other way to protect people.