[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 104 (Monday, July 13, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7408-S7410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

               MATTHEW SHEPARD HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT

 Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues on both sides 
of the aisle to join in supporting the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes 
Prevention Act.
  We need to pass this bill without further delay. The House passed a 
hate crimes bill with a vote of 249 to 175 in April. President Obama 
has repeatedly stated that he supports swift enactment of hate crimes 
legislation. The Department of Justice has expressed a need to 
strengthen our Federal hate crimes law. And, over 300 law enforcement, 
religious, civil rights, and community organizations have stated their

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support for this act. We need to make certain that every American is 
protected from hate crimes. No one should be a victim of violence 
because of who they are.
  In fact, hate crimes are domestic terrorism. Like all terrorist acts, 
they seek to bring fear to whole communities through violence on a few. 
We have committed ourselves to protecting our country from terrorists 
that strike from abroad, so we must make the same commitment to 
protecting Americans from homegrown terrorism.
  Only weeks ago, a small distance from this Capitol, James von Brunn, 
a formerly convicted criminal and a known anti-Semite, entered the DC 
Holocaust Memorial Museum and began firing a rifle. During the attack, 
von Brunn shot and killed security guard Stephen Johns. As tragic as 
this incident was, the heroism of Stephen Johns, and the heroism of 
other members of the museum's security team, prevented von Brunn from 
conducting a violent massacre of innocent men, women, and children. Von 
Brunn planned a hate crime, an act of domestic terrorism. Our society 
recognizes that such a crime cannot be tolerated. Attacks like these 
send shockwaves through American communities and must be prosecuted as 
terrorizing crimes.
  The original hate crime statute, enacted in 1968, criminalized 
violent acts based on a victim's race, color, religion, or national 
origin. Over the past 40 years, we have learned from experience that 
hate crime perpetrators often target communities unprotected by the 
original statute. This amendment strengthens that statute to protect 
victims targeted with violence because of their gender, their sexual 
orientation, their gender identity, or their disability.
  In Boston on August 24, 2008, Jonathan Howard and three friends were 
viciously attacked by four men while walking home from a Boston 
nightclub. The assault began when a Honda pulled up beside the victims. 
The four men in the vehicle began yelling obscenities and homophobic 
slurs at the group. The perpetrators told Howard to die and repeatedly 
kicked his head into the pavement. After the event, Howard stated that 
``the type of assault that we encountered was completely random, 
unprovoked, and unforgivable.'' This type of attack was just as much a 
hate crime as the attack by James von Brunn, and it needs to be 
recognized as a Federal hate crime.
  The victims did nothing to provoke their attack. They did not deserve 
to be the subjects of violence. No member of the LGBT community should 
be terrified to walk down the street for fear of hateful violence. Hate 
crimes perpetrators must not be allowed to place our communities in 
fear.
  On May 11, the Boston Globe reported that the historic election of 
President Barack Obama spurred a wave of hate crime violence. The 
article cites a study by the Southern Poverty Law Center that shows the 
number of White extremist groups in the United States has increased by 
nearly 50 percent since 2000, and that White extremist activity has 
sharply increased over the past several months.
  Last November 5, following the election of President Barack Obama, 
four men rampaged across Staten Island, assaulting African Americans in 
response to President Obama's victory. The attackers beat a 17-year-old 
boy with a pipe. They physically assaulted another man to the ground, 
verbally harassed individuals suspected of voting for President Obama, 
and slammed into a man with a car because they mistakenly believed he 
was African American. None of these victims were known to their 
attackers. None of these victims could have prevented the attacks. The 
victims were terrorized because their attackers wanted to send a 
violent message of hate to the African American community.
  Last July 12, in Shenandoah, PA, Luis Ramirez, a 25-year-old Mexican 
and father of two, was beaten by several drunken students from the 
local high school. Authorities said the teenagers yelled ethnic slurs 
as they punched and kicked Mr. Ramirez, causing him to lose 
consciousness and begin to foam at the mouth. As a result of the 
attack, Mr. Ramirez died 2 days later. During the attack, one of the 
assailants reportedly yelled, ``tell your . . . Mexican friends to get 
. . . out of Shenandoah . . . .'' According to Pennsylvania Governor 
Rendell, ``Luis Ramirez was targeted, beaten, and killed because he was 
Mexican.'' Yet after a jury trial in State court, the killers were 
acquitted of the most serious charges and convicted of simple assault--
yes, simple assault.
  As the result of this case, the Justice Department is currently 
investigating civil rights violations with one hand tied behind their 
back. Because the incident occurred while the victim was walking by a 
park, and because walking by a park may not be considered a ``federally 
protected activity,'' the Justice Department is not able to fully 
investigate and prosecute this crime. This legislation closes the 
flagrant loophole that prevents prosecution of a hate crime when a 
victim is not engaged in a federally protected activity. It provides 
that hate crime perpetrators may be prosecuted, regardless of where 
their victim was or what they were doing when he or she was attacked.
  In addition, this bill authorizes the Justice Department to make 
grants to State, local, and tribal authorities to combat, investigate, 
and prosecute hate crimes more effectively. During these times of 
economic crisis, State and local authorities are cash-strapped to deal 
with costly hate crime incidents. Investigations tend to be expensive. 
They require considerable law enforcement effort and extensive use of 
grand juries. To ease the extraordinary costs and complexity of such 
cases, the bill authorizes $5 million in Justice Department grants to 
State, local, and tribal law enforcement officials who have incurred 
extraordinary expenses associated with investigating and prosecuting 
hate crimes.
  The legislation also authorizes the Justice Department to make grants 
for State, local, and tribal programs that combat hate crimes committed 
by juveniles, including programs to train local law enforcement 
officers in identifying, investigating, prosecuting, and preventing 
hate crimes. With hate crimes against Latinos on the rise, and hate 
crimes against LGBT individuals on the rise, and hate group activity on 
the rise, we must ensure that our State and local law enforcement 
authorities have all the tools and resources they need to combat, 
investigate, and prosecute hate crimes.
  I am proud to take this opportunity to recognize the work of the 
Boston Police Department as the only major police department to 
incorporate hate crimes training into its mandatory training program. 
Unfortunately, many police departments around the country do not have 
the resources necessary to provide such training. This bill 
specifically authorizes the Justice Department to allocate funds for 
training so that other police departments may follow the example set by 
the Boston PD.
  Violent attacks based on race, color, religion, national origin, 
gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability deserve to 
be criminalized by Federal law. Our Nation must show that it will not 
permit these communities to be terrorized--one victim at a time.
  For the past 10 years, the Senate and the House of Representatives 
have each passed this legislation on multiple occasions--only to face 
political setbacks that have prevented the measure from being enacted. 
Now, we must finish the job and send this legislation to the President 
for his signature. By doing so, Congress will be reflecting the will of 
the American people. We will be sending a strong message that hate 
crime violence will not be tolerated--and that every citizen deserves 
Federal protection against such crimes.
  Religious leaders across the country support the amendment. As my 
colleagues know, the Golden Rule is recognized as one of the deepest 
principles in virtually every religious tradition. It is the simple 
principle that we ought to treat others as we ourselves would like to 
be treated. In the book of Matthew, chapter 7, Jesus says, ``So 
whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for 
this is the Law and the Prophets.'' This amendment embodies the Golden 
Rule by extending protection to individuals in communities that are 
vulnerable to violence fueled by hatred.
  Religious leader, Pastor Joel C. Hunter, has said, ``I would think 
that

[[Page S7410]]

the followers of Jesus would be first in line to protect any group from 
hate crimes . . . This bill protects both the rights of conservative 
religious people to voice passionately their interpretations of their 
scriptures and protects their fellow citizens from physical attack.''
  Many religious groups have expressed their support for the bill, 
including the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of 
America, the Interfaith Alliance, the Presbyterian Church, the United 
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the United Methodist Church, and the 
Congress of National Black Churches.
  Over 10 years have passed since the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes 
Prevention Act was first introduced in the Senate. Over 10 years have 
passed since Matthew Shepard was robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied 
to a fence, and left to die because he was gay. I commend Matthew's 
mother, Judy Shepard, for her years of inspiring advocacy that have 
brought us to this moment. Now is the time for the Senate to vote and 
show that we will not allow domestic terrorism to tear apart the fabric 
of our Nation and take the lives of innocent Americans. I urge my 
colleagues in the Senate to follow their hearts and minds and vote in 
favor of this legislation.

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