[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4023]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HATE CRIMES IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Johnson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, since November's election, it 
seems that there have been a rise in incidents of hate crimes in this 
country. This wave of hate crimes has spread fear and anxiety in 
communities of different faiths, ethnicities, and cultures across this 
country. On Tuesday, multiple Jewish community centers, schools, and 
organizations across the Nation, including in Atlanta, received 
anonymous bomb threats. This follows a wave of over 120 threats against 
Jewish community centers across America as well as the senseless 
desecration of graves at Jewish cemeteries countrywide.
  I suspect, Mr. Speaker, that these are not unrelated incidents of 
juvenile delinquents. This is rank, organized anti-Semitic activity. It 
is systematic and organized activity meant to terrorize Jews in 
America. This comes at a time when Islamophobia is taking root and 
spreading across America. Mosques are being burned to the ground, 
Muslim children are being bullied at school, and Muslim women are 
subjected to having attackers snatching their hijabs from their heads 
as they walk the streets.
  The President's Muslim ban is payback on the pledge he made to his 
supporters during the campaign. Meanwhile, in February, a 32-year-old 
Indian man was shot and killed, another was wounded, and a third man 
who intervened was shot and wounded by a gunman shouting ``Get out of 
my country.''

                              {time}  1045

  Again, on March 3, a Sikh man was shot in Seattle by an attacker 
yelling, ``Go back to your country.'' At that time, the attacker had a 
mask on. During these incidents, our President has remained 
uncharacteristically silent on these attacks. His silence comes after 
his anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim, and anti-Obama campaign sparked American 
White nationalists to feel emboldened.
  This is a dangerous and slippery slope that we are on, ladies and 
gentlemen. It must end, and it must end now. As Dr. King once said: 
``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' We must 
protect all communities that have come under assault.
  Today I introduce the Reaffirming DHS' Commitment to Countering All 
Forms of Violent Extremism Act of 2017 to ensure that countering 
violent extremism funds within the Department of Homeland Security are 
used to tackle the rise of rightwing extremism, which threatens the 
safety of us all here in America.

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