Beating of homeless man to bring light sentence

Outrage of the day: If 4 men accused of the brutal beating of a homeless man in Cincinnati are convicted, the maximum sentence is only 8 years in prison.

The attack was completely unprovoked and was motivated by the assailants' desire to attack somebody just for being homeless. This was a violent hate crime.

They sent a man to the hospital with life-threatening injuries by beating him with a baseball bat, yet they're facing only 8 years at most?

Minor drug offenders often get 30 years, but if you beat up a homeless person, you only get 8? Hate crimes are supposed to carry stiffer punishments, so how can they only get 8 years?

I'm not blaming the prosecutors. I'm blaming lawmakers for making the laws so weak even while they brag about being "tough on crime." In recent years, they've passed new laws against Sudafed and backyard satellite dishes, but the laws against almost killing defenseless people because of their economic status remain lax.

Only in conservaworld can the prison state expand while real criminals are mollycoddled.