[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 2, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H4298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONYERS-KIRK HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Conyers-Kirk Local 
Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. We know that a hate crime 
can ignite group-on-group violence that can completely overwhelm a 
small suburban police department.
  In 2005, the FBI recorded 7,000 hate crimes in our country, 168 in 
the State of Illinois, and two in my congressional district, one in 
Wheeling and one in Palatine.
  For us, we remember a tragic night in 1999 when Benjamin Smith, a 
member of a white supremacist group, gunned down the Northwestern 
University basketball coach in front of two kids. Why? Because he was 
black. Smith then continued his hunting spree, shooting Orthodox Jews 
coming home from synagogue, and spraying bullets at an Asian couple 
driving home in Northbrook.
  These were hate crimes, crimes designed to tear a community apart, 
crimes designed to commit and isolate and stigmatize others because of 
the color of their skin or the religion they practice.
  I urge my colleagues to back the Hate Crimes bill.

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