Hate Crime Legislation

Amidst all the jive about guns and capitalism and all those funny people breaking each others bones over a sliver of sand, I think we should get down with THIS issue.
     Now, I've seen that South Park episode where the kids had the presentation on how most violent crimes were hate crimes and reverese racism and yada yada. That is the typical 'common-sensical' jazz I've heard before. I want a factual debate on this. We can at least try. What do you think? Philosophical debate is good, factual argumentation and examples of causality are preferable.

What exactly is this "hate crime" you're talking about? Criminalise hating? That's blatant first amendment violation and you can't fight fire with fire. Or do you mean that we should have different penalties for crimes involving racial hatred?