    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 46 (Monday, November 17, 1997)]
    [Pages 1776-1778]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Opening Remarks at the White House Conference on Hate Crimes

    November 10, 1997

        The President. Thank you. I don't see that I need to say much, do
    you? [Laughter] Thank you, Cheunee.
        Audience member. You murdered Vince Foster and it's not a hate
    crime.
        The President. We have the first amendment even here. But I think
    the hate is coming from your way, not mine.
        President Trachtenberg, and members of the administration, Senator
    Kennedy, Members of the House. And let me also say that in addition to
    all of you who are here, there are thousands of people at satellite-link
    conferences all over the country.
        We have heard today two moving personal testimonies, from a person
    who gave his life in law enforcement and from a young person just
    beginning her adult life but having already lived a lifetime of
    experiences that we wish she had never endured. They both teach us in
    different ways that our families and our country can only thrive if
    they're free from the fear of crime and violence. And we have to do
    everything we can to give them that security. That's the main reason we
    decided to hold this White House Conference on Hate Crimes.
        As I said this morning to those of you who were at the breakfast,
    all over the world we see what happens when racial or ethnic or
    religious animosity joins with lawlessness. We've seen countries and
    people and families torn apart. We've seen countries go from peace to
    wholesale internecine slaughter in a matter of months. We've seen people
    rise up and fight each other over issues that they thought had been
    dormant for centuries.
        But even in America we hear too many stories like the ones Cheunee
    told us, too many stories like the 13-year-old African-American boy
    nearly beaten to death when he rode his bicycle through the wrong
    neighborhood, the gay American murdered as he walked home from work, the
    Asian-American who lost her store to a firebomb hurled by a racist, the
    Jewish-American whose house of worship was desecrated by swastikas.

    [[Page 1777]]

        We hear too many of these stories--stories of violent acts which are
    not just despicable acts of bias and bigotry, they are crimes. They
    strike at the heart of what it means to be an American. They are the
    antithesis of the values that define us as a nation. They have nothing
    to do with freedom or equality or respect for the law, and most
    importantly, they prevent us from respecting one another.
        Last year I asked the American people to begin a great national
    conversation on race, to come together, across all the lines that divide
    us, into one America. We know we can only fight prejudice by fighting
    the misunderstanding and the ignorance and the fear that produce it. One
    of the things that I hope will come out of this year is a national
    affirmation that violence motivated by prejudice and hatred, as Cheunee
    said, hurts us all. Anybody who thinks that in the world of today and
    tomorrow, that he or she can hide from the kind of poison that we see in
    various places in our country, is living in a dream world. Whether we
    like it or not, our futures are bound together, and it is time we acted
    like it.
        The first thing we have to do is to make sure our Nation's laws
    fully protect all of its citizens. Our laws already punish some crimes
    committed against people on the basis of race or religion or national
    origin, but we should do more. We should make our current laws tougher
    to include all hate crimes that cause physical harm. We must prohibit
    crimes committed because of a victim's sexual orientation, gender, or
    disability. All Americans deserve protection from hate.
        I want to thank Senator Kennedy and Senator Specter, who will soon
    introduce legislation to achieve these goals, and I want to tell you
    that I will do my best to help them see this legislation become the law
    of our land. Thank you, Senators.
        The second thing we have to do is to make sure our civil rights laws
    are consistently and vigorously enforced. Under Attorney General Reno's
    leadership, the Justice Department has taken aim at hate crimes with
    more prosecutions and tougher punishments. Starting today, every United
    States Attorney in our country will establish or expand working groups
    to develop enforcement strategies, share best practices, and educate the
    public about hate crimes. This national hate crimes network will marshal
    the resources of Federal, State, and local enforcement, community
    groups, educators, antiviolence advocates, to give us another powerful
    tool in the struggle against hate crimes.
        I'm also pleased to announce that we will assign over 50 more FBI
    agents and prosecutors to work on hate crimes enforcement. And the
    Justice Department will make its own hate crimes training curriculum
    available to State and local law enforcement training centers all around
    America.
        Finally, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the
    Justice Department are launching an important new initiative that will
    help victims of housing-related hate crimes bring action against their
    attackers and get money damages for the harm they suffer.
        When it comes to enforcing civil rights laws, let me also remind you
    that we need strong leadership. I have nominated Bill Lann Lee to head
    the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice because I'm
    convinced he'll provide that leadership. [Applause] Thank you. He is a
    son of Chinese immigrants who has seen the damaging force of
    discrimination. He has dedicated his career to fighting for equal
    rights, without regard to ideology or political party. Everyone who
    heard him in the Senate was impressed with his background, his record,
    his demeanor, his capacity, and yet we are being told that the Senate
    will not be allowed to vote on him because he supports his own
    President's position on affirmative action. Now, with all respect, if we
    have to wait until we get a head of the Civil Rights Division who is
    opposed to affirmative action, that job will be vacant for a very long
    time. We had an election about that.
        On the other hand, let's not forget, this is but a tiny slice of
    what the Civil Rights Division does. We have laws on the books against
    discrimination that 90 percent of the American people support, and they
    need to be enforced vigorously by somebody who embodies the American
    ideal. It is wrong to deny this man that job because he agrees with the
    policies of his President on that issue. It is wrong.

    [[Page 1778]]

        All I ask the Senate committee to do is just to send his name out.
    They don't even have to make a recommendation; just let the Senate vote.
    Let all 100 Senators stand up and be counted in the full view of the
    American people and let them know their stand.
        Let me also say that in addition to enforcement, in addition to
    pushing for new laws, in addition to training our own people and others
    better, let's also admit one thing--we have a lot of law enforcement
    officials who have worked on this--a lot of hate crimes still go
    unreported. I see a lot of you nodding your head up and down. If a crime
    is unreported, that gives people an excuse to ignore it.
        I'm pleased to announce that today for the first time the National
    Crime Victimization Survey used by the Justice Department will finally
    include questions about hate crimes, so we can report them on a national
    basis along with others. It may seem like a small addition, but it will
    yield large results. It will give us a better measure of the number of
    hate crimes, and it will increase what we know about how they occur.
        Let me say, lastly, all of us have to do more in our communities,
    through organizations like the one that Cheunee was part of in putting
    into Brooklyn High School, and in our own homes and places of worship to
    teach all of our children about the dignity of every person. I'm very
    pleased that the Education and the Justice Departments will distribute
    to every school district in the country a hate crimes resource guide.
    The guide will direct educators to the materials they can use to teach
    tolerance and mutual respect. And also the Justice Department is
    launching a Web site where younger students can learn about prejudice
    and the harm it causes.
        Children have to be taught to hate. And as they come more and more
    of age and they get into more and more environments where they can be
    taught that, we need to make sure that somebody is teaching them not to
    do so.
        I wouldn't be surprised if today some of the skinheads that threw
    rocks and bottles at Cheunee when she was a little girl have grown out
    of it and are frankly ashamed of what they did. I wouldn't be surprised
    if some of them weren't ashamed of it on the day they did it, but they
    just wanted to go along, to get along, to be part of the group. But some
    of the people who were subject to that, some of the people who were on
    the bus with her or on the street with her, are not here today to make
    the speech she gave. I'll bet you some of the people were scarred in
    ways that they never got over.
        So as important as it is to enforce the law, to punish people, to do
    all this--all this is very important--the most important thing we can do
    is to reach these kids while they're young enough to learn. Somebody is
    going to be trying to teach them to hate. We want to teach them a
    different way. And in the end, if we all do our part for that, we can
    make America one nation under God.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:20 p.m. in the Dorothy Betts Marvin
    Theater at George Washington University. In his remarks, he referred to
    Stephen J. Trachtenberg, president, George Washington University, and
    Cheunee Sampson, Duke University student who introduced the President.