    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [April 25, 2000]
    [Pages 773-776]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Proposed Hate Crimes Legislation
    April 25, 2000

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Amy Klobuchar and all the other law enforcement officials, civil rights
    leaders who are here; Attorney General Reno,
    Deputy Attorney General Holder.

    Elian Gonzalez

        Before I begin my remarks about hate crimes, I'd like to say just a
    brief word about the reunion of Elian Gonzalez and his father. After 5 months, it was long overdue. Now that
    they have been safely reunited, I believe it's time for all of us,
    including the media and those of us in public life, to give this family
    the space it needs to heal its wounds and strengthen its bonds; to work
    to lessen the pressure on them as the matter goes forward in the courts.
        The thing that really matters now is that little boy and his life
    and his family. And I think, at least for the next several days, the
    less we

    [[Page 774]]

    all say about it and the more time he has to breathe the air of a normal
    life, the better.
        I would like to commend the Attorney General
    and Deputy Attorney General Holder, the
    law enforcement, and the INS. They had a very, very difficult job to do,
    with no easy choices. And I am grateful that they were able to safely
    reunite the young boy with his father.
        Thank you.

    Hate Crimes Legislation

        We have just had a very, very good meeting with people who are on
    the frontlines of law enforcement in our communities, people with
    different responsibilities, very different backgrounds, different
    viewpoints, who have all come to the same conclusion: We need to work
    together as partners and as a national community to fight crimes fueled
    by hate, and we need strong Federal hate crimes legislation.
        I want to be clear. Most hate crimes are investigated and prosecuted
    at the State level. We support that. In fact, one of the reasons that I
    asked Janet Reno to become Attorney General over
    7 years ago is that she had been a prosecutor in Miami for a dozen
    years. And I wanted the Federal Government to have a unified law
    enforcement policy with State and local authorities all across this
    country in an unprecedented partnership. I think we have achieved that.
        But in some of the most brutal, hate-motivated crimes, Federal
    officials have been prevented from teaming up with local law
    enforcement. That has denied communities the resources and the expertise
    they need. We can draw a line against hate by drawing on each other's
    experiences. One important way to ensure that hate crimes are punished
    and justice is done is to make sure we're all able to do our part, and
    that was the focus of our meeting today.
        Probably, you've heard me say many times by now that the great irony
    of this very modern age is that the biggest stumbling block we face is
    perhaps the oldest problem in human relations, our fear of those who are
    different from us. It's not a far leap from that kind of fear into
    distrust and then to dehumanization and then to violence.
        We have seen that in case after case across this land: a man dragged
    to death in Texas because he was black; a young man stretched across a
    fence in Wyoming because he was gay; children shot in Los Angeles
    because of their faiths; a young Korean-American shot coming out of
    church by a man who said he belonged to a church that didn't believe in
    God, but did believe in white supremacy.
        In 1998, the last year for which we have statistics, over 7,700 hate
    crimes incidents were reported in our Nation, almost one an hour. And it
    is suspected by the experts that many more go unreported. These are not
    like other crimes, because these crimes target people simply because of
    who they are. And because they do, they strike at the heart of who we
    are as a Nation.
        Whenever one of these crimes is committed, it creates a tension and
    fear that rips at the fabric of community life. This is not a partisan
    statement, but a simple statement of fact. This is about people who go
    to work, obey the law, are good citizens and good neighbors, who ought
    to be able to live their lives in dignity and without fear of abuse or
    attack, but cannot. That's why we have worked hard to combat such
    crimes.
        Two and a half years ago I convened the first-ever White House
    Conference on Hate Crimes. Since then we have increased substantially
    the number of FBI agents working on them. We have successfully
    prosecuted a number of serious cases, formed local hate crime working
    groups in the U.S. attorneys' offices around our Nation, worked to help
    police officers identify the signs of a hate crime. My budget for the
    coming year includes funding for hate crime training for law
    enforcement.
        But we must do more. You have already heard today, Federal laws
    punish some crimes committed against people on the basis of race or
    religion or national origin. But they are hamstrung by needless
    jurisdictional requirements for existing crimes. Right now Federal
    prosecutors cannot prosecute even the most heinous crimes unless the
    victim was voting, serving on a jury, or doing some other Federally
    protected activity. That defies common sense.
        Today I heard about a case involving three skinheads in Lubbock,
    Texas, who declared a race war in their community, murdered one African-
    American as he was walking down the street, and injured two others.
    Local prosecutors and the U.S. Attorney's Office decided together that
    the case should be tried in Federal court. The skinheads were convicted
    and are behind bars with no chance of parole. But if the victim

    [[Page 775]]

    had been inside a friend's house instead of on a public street, that
    would not have been a hate crime under today's Federal law. That doesn't
    make sense. It shouldn't matter where the murder was committed; it was
    still a hate crime. And the resources of the Federal Government were
    needed.

        We also must give Federal prosecutors the ability to prosecute hate
    crimes committed because of sexual orientation, gender, or disability.
    These account for a growing number of such crimes. As the community
    leaders have told us today, this is not about taking anything away from
    States and communities. It's about making sure all our hometowns have
    the tools they need to fight hate.

        So today I want to announce some new ways to do just that. First,
    the American Prosecutors Research Institute, the research arm of the
    National District Attorneys Association, is releasing today a resource
    guide, the first of its kind, to help prosecutors' offices handle hate
    crimes investigations and prosecutions. This report was funded by the
    Justice Department. It highlights model practices around our country,
    giving guidance on everything from screening cases and investigation to
    trial preparation to help in preventing the crimes in the first place.

        Second, I'm announcing the release of a new guide that highlights
    promising practices by communities to confront and reduce hate crimes.
    It spotlights five national models, from California to Maine, for
    training criminal justice professionals, treating the emotional and
    practical needs of hate crime victims, and taking creative steps to root
    out hate from public schools.

        Third, and most important, I am renewing my call on Congress to pass
    a meaningful hate crimes bill. Last year Congress stripped out important
    hate crimes protections from a bill that had already passed the Senate.
    I vetoed the bill in part because it did not contain the strong hate
    crimes provisions we're fighting for.

        This year America needs action. No one should be victimized because
    of how they look, how they worship, or who they are. The one thing I
    regret today is that all of you, and through our friends in the media
    who are here, the American people, could not have heard the personal
    testimony of the two law enforcement officials who came all the way from
    Wyoming to be with us, about how the searing experience of Matthew
    Shepard's murder and their responsibility to investigate it--to get to
    know his friends, gay and straight alike, and his family, to understand
    the circumstances of the inhumanity which took his life--how all of that
    changed their lives. That is really what this is about. We need to
    provide a law that works. And we need to get beyond the law so that we
    all work together. It is profoundly important.

        Let me say, in a larger sense, this is part of our efforts to make
    our country a less violent place. I am grateful that crime is at a 25-
    year low, that homicides are at a 30-year low, that gun crimes have
    dropped 35 percent in the last 7 years. But as we saw just yesterday at
    the devastating act of violence at the National Zoo here in our Nation's
    Capital, where seven young people were shot and wounded in a senseless
    act, our country still has too much violence and too much crime. I'd
    like to express my concern and support to the Mayor and the entire community and, obviously, to the victims
    and their families. But whether it's a random act against children or a
    crime driven by hate, it should be obvious to all of us that we can do
    more, and we must do more.

        Seven years ago and 3 months now, when I became President, I think
    there were a lot of people who really wondered whether the crime rate
    could be brought down in our country, whether we could become less
    violent. In such an atmosphere, maybe reservations about taking even
    sensible steps could be justified. But today, we don't have any excuses.
    We know we can make America a safer place.

        But while the crime rate may be at a 25-year low, and gun crimes may
    be down 35 percent, and the homicide rate may be down to a 30-year low,
    there's not a single soul in this room or in this entire country who
    believes that our children are as safe as they ought to be, that people
    are safe from hate crimes, no matter what their race, their religion,
    their condition, or their sexual orientation, that we have done all we
    can to make this the country it ought to be.

        So if you believe that everyone counts and that everyone should have
    a chance to live his or her life, and if you believe we all do better
    when we work together, then you've got to help us pass this legislation.
    It's very important, and we don't have a single excuse not to do it.

        Thank you very much.

    [[Page 776]]

     Note:  The President spoke at 2:32 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Amy Klobuchar, Hennepin County
    attorney, Minnesota; and Mayor Anthony A. Williams of the District of
    Columbia.