RE “Racist opinions aren’t crimes’’: Jeff Jacoby argues that racism, or animosity toward some other group, as motivation for a crime should be of no judicial relevance to the criminal act. Logically, that would mean there is no such thing as terrorism, because in terrorist attacks, as in hate crimes, only specific individuals are actual victims, regardless of the motivation of the terrorist. This way of looking at things defies common sense. When group membership is the target of a crime, all other group members become victims to the extent that they are forced to live in fear and to take extranormal precautionary steps — enhanced airport screening, for example, in the case of terrorism — to avoid becoming direct victims.

Hate crimes are terrorism writ small. Shooting one or more people just because they are black is, at root, the same crime as driving a speeding truck into hundreds of people just because they are non-Muslim. The difference between Gary Lee Sampson and Dylan Roof, each of whom was recently sentenced to death, is that Sampson’s heinous acts were those of a common criminal, while Roof in essence emulated Osama bin Laden on a smaller scale. We, as citizens, and the justice system that we institute, ought to take note of that difference and regard the second type of behavior as more culpable than the first.

Keith Backman

Bedford