[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 51 (Thursday, March 18, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H1572]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HATE CRIMES IN AMERICA

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I was in the United States Congress 
when the first hate crimes legislation was written. It was written 
after the heinous killing of James Byrd in Texas, where a Black man was 
dragged through the streets of Texas and decapitated.
  Tomorrow, the President of the United States will go to Georgia, 
where eight people were killed, six of whom happen to be Asian women. 
Yet a captain in the Cherokee Sheriff's Department said that the 
perpetrator had a bad day.
  Mr. Speaker, wrapped in racism, white supremacy, and hatred, the 
Georgia law says that if you kill women, it may be a gender hatred 
crime. I want a full investigation. I believe in the Constitution due 
process, but this is a hate crime. People are dead, Asian women are 
dead, and this perpetrator should be held accountable.
  If you are in law enforcement, the best role that you have is as a 
fact finder and someone who can offer sympathy that makes sense, not 
that the perpetrator had a bad day and this is what he did. I am having 
a bad day because we still have hatred in this country.

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