[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 154 (Thursday, November 8, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H7952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the savage attacks of September 11 resulted 
in the deaths of more than 5,000 innocent victims. To add to this 
horror, the horror of terrorist strikes, acts of violence against 
Muslims and Arab-Americans increased dramatically throughout the United 
States since September 11.
  The Council of American Islamic relations has received more than 300 
reports of harassment and abuse committed against innocent Sikhs, 
Arabs, Indians, and people of Muslim faith.
  Communities across the Nation are horrified by these brutal crimes: a 
threat to a turban-wearing Sikh in Connecticut, an attack of a woman on 
a Maryland college campus, rocks thrown through an open bedroom window 
in Roanoke, Virginia.
  Hate crimes are not new to our country, but these are different. The 
victims of these hate crimes were children. The victim in Connecticut 
was a second grader. The woman was a teenager attacked by fellow young 
adults. And the child who barely missed being hit by a rock was only 
two years old.
  Throughout the country, Muslim and other Arab-American children are 
fearful of attacks on the street, in their homes, and at their schools 
in reprisal for the terrorist strikes of September 11.
  Muslim private schools have canceled classes. Parents are being asked 
to help patrol school yards, and according to the American-Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee, many parents have kept their children home 
from both public and private schools.
  Although hate crimes have been on the decline recently, law 
enforcement officials and leaders in Arab-American and Muslim 
communities are preparing for more trouble because children are still 
being attacked by fellow classmates and schools are still being 
vandalized.

                              {time}  1500

  In the past week, two Malaysian students at Indiana University were 
assaulted and an Afghan student in New York was attacked by fellow 
students. Only last month a threatening note found by a Palmdale, 
California, high school forced five Muslim-American students to stay 
home for their own safety.
  No one in America should live in fear because of his or her ethnic 
background or religious affiliation. This is especially true for 
children. That is why it is clearer than ever before just how important 
it is to pass meaningful hate crimes legislation.
  Children and their families are suffering as a result of the 
ignorance, fear and hate of others. We need to strengthen our existing 
laws to protect them against all hate crimes. We must send a message, 
especially to our children, that hateful behavior is wrong and will not 
be tolerated.
  Children must be given guidance to resolve conflicts peacefully, to 
build bridges across issues of difference. As a member of the Committee 
on Education and the Workforce, I worked to pass the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act, ESEA, reauthorization, which includes funding 
for education and training programs, curricula and instructional 
materials to prevent crimes. We need to build on this education step 
because State governments and local police need vigorous tools to fight 
and prosecute hate crimes. Sadly, existing Federal law is inadequate.
  That is why I am a strong supporter of the Local Law Enforcement Hate 
Crimes Prevention Act of the year 2001, sponsored by the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Conyers). That act will empower existing hate crime 
legislation by making it easier for Federal law enforcement to 
investigate and prosecute crimes motivated by race, by color, by 
religion and national origin, as well as gender, sexual orientation, 
and disability.
  Cosponsored by 199 bipartisan Members of the House of 
Representatives, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act 
has, unfortunately, been cast aside by the Republican leadership. That 
is absolutely unacceptable. There could not be a better or more needed 
time to bring this legislation to the floor and to pass it. It will 
give Federal authorities the jurisdictional muscle they need to 
effectively prosecute hate crimes.
  Parents and young adults need to be examples to our children. We need 
to show them how to deal with conflict, how to avoid hate crimes, and 
how much we disapprove of hate crimes. Teaching our children how to 
resolve issues of difference and broadening the scope of punishable 
hate crimes will ensure America's future by protecting our children.
  After the attacks of September 11, innocent children must not be 
added to the long list of victims in our Nation.

                          ____________________