[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 17 (Monday, May 1, 2000)]
[Pages 920-922]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 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.

[[Page 921]]

    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 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

[[Page 922]]

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.
      

 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.