The idiocy of hate crime legislation

The death of Steve McNair and his 20 year old girl friend show the bizarre possibilities of hate crimes legislation. Were they killed because someone hated them for their race and ethnicity or what they were doing? Could be! Was it murder-suicide? Possibly. Crime of passion? Obviously. He was an older married man, rich and famous; she was a powerless waitress. Maybe she found out, like many star struck girls do, that the "divorce" story was a lie. Spurned 3rd party? Could be--Law and Order plot. Maybe she had more than one boyfriend. Maybe she wasn't even a girl! OMG! This is a case for the Closer--I saw an episode like that. Was it race or gender or just old fashioned sin? Both were minorities. Hate crime investigators, go for it. The current legislation is about "perception" not fact. The idiocy of all hate crime legislation is that all the crimes are covered by other laws, and only certain Americans are protected/covered by this one. And the liberals are stumped when black on black crime, or gay on gay crime (by far the majority), just have to be plain old insult, murder or mayhem.