Should they be charged with a 'Hate crime' ?

Hmm, maybe so. People that treat Sarah Palin so cruely would do things like that if intended. It was obvious that the people who comitted the crime should be charged! I tell you, society these days has no respect for others who are great Christians. This world has gone out of hand lately. I don’t think we’ll have peace at all.

Any Christian reserves hatred for Satan, the root of evil. A Satanist hates God, the root of good. Charging an arsonist with a hate crime would not set a good example of Christianity unless psychological evaluation supported evil motivation. Burning any valuable property owned by other(s) is vandalistic arson regardless of the motivation and further charges depend on the psychoanalytical behavioural evaluation.

yes, they should be.

Do you have any basis on which to call it a hate crime?

yes!!! if someone was burning a cross in fron of a black church why not apply the same!

fillet has supplied the correct answer.

So if the arson was motivated by Ms. Palin’s race, religion, or national origin than it could be charged as a hate crime. If the crime was motivated by Ms. Palin’s gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability than no dice since Federal hate crime laws do not protect against these. For example if the arsonist burned the church because of their rabid hatred of heterosexual women than it isn’t a hate crime from the Federal point of view anyway.