[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 7147-7148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT OF 
                                  2007

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 20, 2007

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to introduce the bipartisan 
Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, along with 
Representatives Kirk, Frank, Shays, Baldwin, Ros-Lehtinen, Nadler, and 
Bono. As of today there are more than 100 original cosponsors. This 
legislation will provide assistance to state and local law enforcement 
agencies and amend federal law to facilitate the investigation and 
prosecution of violent, bias-motivated crimes. Last Congress, this 
legislation passed with bipartisan support as H. Amdt 544 to the Child 
Safety Act (H.R. 3132) by a vote of 223-199. Bipartisan majorities also 
voted in favor of hate crime legislation in the 108th and 106th 
Congresses.
  The Hate Crimes Prevention Act has attracted the support of over 210 
civil rights, education, religious, and civic organizations. 
Importantly, virtually every major law enforcement organization in the 
country has endorsed the bill--including the International Association 
of Chiefs of Police, the National District Attorneys Association, the 
National Sheriffs Association, the Police Executive Research Forum, and 
31 state Attorneys General.
  Bias crimes are disturbingly prevalent and pose a significant threat 
to the full participation of all Americans in our democratic society. 
The FBI has the best national data on reported hate crime, though the 
program is voluntary. Since 1991, the FBI has documented over 113,000 
hate crimes. For the year 2005, the most current data available, the 
FBI compiled reports from law enforcement agencies across the country 
identifying 7,163 bias-motivated criminal incidents that were directed 
against an individual because of their personal characteristics. Law 
enforcement agencies identified 8,795 victims arising from 8,373 
separate criminal offenses. As in the past, racially-motivated bias 
accounted for more than half (54.7 percent) of all incidents. Religious 
bias accounted for 1,227 incidents (17.1 percent) and sexual 
orientation bias accounted for 1,017 incidents--(14.2 percent), 
followed by ethnicity/national origin bias with 944 incidents--(13.7 
percent). While these numbers are disturbing, it is important to note 
that, for a variety of reasons, hate crimes are seriously under-
reported.
  Despite the deep impact of hate violence on communities, current law 
limits federal jurisdiction over hate crimes to incidents directed 
against individuals on the basis of race, religion, color or national 
origin--but only when the victim is targeted because he/she is engaged 
in a federally protected activities, such as voting. Further, the 
statutes do not permit federal involvement in a range of cases where 
crimes are motivated by bias against the victim's perceived sexual 
orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. The federal 
government must have authority to be involved in investigating and 
prosecuting these crimes when state authorities cannot or will not do 
so.
  This legislation, which is identical to the version approved in the 
109th Congress, will strengthen existing federal law in the same way 
that the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 helped federal prosecutors 
combat church arson: by addressing the unduly rigid jurisdictional 
requirements under federal law. The bill only applies to bias-motivated 
violent crimes and does not impinge public speech or writing in any 
way. In fact, the measure includes an explicit First Amendment free 
speech protection for the accused modeled on the existing Washington 
state hate crimes statute.
  State and local authorities currently prosecute the overwhelming 
majority of hate crimes and will continue to do so under this 
legislation. The federal government will continue to defer to state and 
local authorities in the vast majority of cases; the Attorney General 
or another high ranking Justice Department official must approve any 
prosecutions undertaken pursuant to this law, ensuring federal 
restraint. However, in appropriate circumstances, the federal 
government will be able to provide support for local prosecutions--an 
intergovernmental grant program created by this legislation will make 
Justice Department technical, forensic or prosecutorial assistance 
available. The legislation also authorizes the Attorney General to make 
grants to state and local law enforcement agencies

[[Page 7148]]

that have incurred extraordinary expenses associated with the 
investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.
  The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 is a 
constructive and measured response to a problem that continues to 
plague our nation. Hate crime statistics do not speak for themselves. 
Behind each of the statistics is an individual or community targeted 
for violence for no other reason than race, religion, ethnicity, sexual 
orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Law enforcement 
authorities and civic leaders have learned that a failure to address 
the problem of bias crime can cause a seemingly isolated incident to 
fester into widespread tension that can damage the social fabric of the 
wider community. This problem cuts across party lines, and I am glad to 
be joined by so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in 
proposing this legislation today. These are crimes that shock and shame 
our national conscience and should be subject to comprehensive federal 
law enforcement assistance and prosecution.

                          ____________________