Letter: Hate crimes

According to Lothian and Borders Police, "hate crimes" have "a longer effect" because they make victims think that "lots of other people won't like me either" (your report, 29 September).

Whether people feel liked or not is not the business of the police. Dealing with assaults and vandalism, etc is.

It is a very short step from additional punishments for those who make a gay person feel disliked through a crime, to punishing those who make gay people feel disliked independently of any other criminal act.

And of course feeling disliked is a thoroughly subjective experience, so accusations could be made with the flimsiest justification - for example against anyone claiming that homosexual sex is immoral.

Richard Lucas

Cowan Road

Edinburgh