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“INTRODUCTION OF HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT OF 1999” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E422 on March 11, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTION OF HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT OF 1999
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HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.
of michigan
in the house of representatives
Thursday, March 11, 1999
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be introducing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999, along with Representatives Morella, Baldwin and Forbes. As of today there are 118 original cosponsors. This legislation will amend Federal law to enhance the ability of Federal prosecutors to combat racial and religious savagery, and will permit Federal prosecution of violence motivated by prejudice against the victim's sexual orientation, gender or disability.
In 1963, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, was dynamited by the Ku Klux Klan. The killing of four African-American girls preparing for a religious ceremony shocked the Nation and acted as a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Last month, 36 years after the brutal bombing in Birmingham, Alabama was witness to another heinous act of violence motivated by base bigotry. The beating and burning of Billy Jack Gaither is testament to the reality that a guarantee of civil rights is not enough if violence motivated by hatred and prejudice continues. The atrocity, coming on the heels of last year's torture and murder of James Byrd in Jasper, TX and Matthew Shepard in Laramie, WY illustrates the need for the passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999.
Current Federal hate crimes law only covers crimes motivated by racial, religious or ethnic prejudice. Our bill adds violence motivated by prejudice against the victim's sexual orientation, gender or disability. This legislation also makes it easier for Federal authorities to prosecute racial, religious and ethnic violence, in the same way that the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 helped Federal prosecutors combat church arson by loosening the unduly rigid jurisdictional requirements under Federal law for prosecuting church arson.
Under my legislation, States will continue to take the lead in the persecution of hate crimes. In the years 1991 through 1997 there were more than 50,000 hate crimes reported. From 1990 through 1998, there were 42 Federal hate crimes prosecutions nationwide under the original hate crimes statute. Our bill will result only in a modest increase in the number of Federal prosecutions of hate crimes. The Attorney General or other high ranking Justice Department officials must approve all prosecution under this law. This requirement ensures Federal restraint, and ensures that States will continue to take the lead.
At one time lynchings were commonplace in our Nation. Nearly 4,000 African Americans were tortured and killed between 1880 and 1930. Today, Americans are being tortured and killed not only because of their race, but also because of their religion, their disability, their sex, and their sexual orientation. It is long past time that Congress passed a comprehensive law banning such contemptible acts. It is a Federal crime to hijack an automobile or to possess cocaine and it ought to be a Federal crime to drag a man to death because of his race or to hang a man because of his sexual orientation. These are crimes that shock and shame our national conscience and they should be subject to Federal law enforcement assistance and prosecution. There certainly is a role for the States, but far too many States have no hate crimes laws and many existing laws do not specify sexual orientation as a category for protection.
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. This is a battle we cannot afford to lose--we owe it to the thousands of African Americans who have been lynched, and we owe it to the families of James Byrd, Matthew Shepard and Billy Jack Gaither.
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