CAUSE FOR CONCERN: HATE CRIMES IN AMERICA Leadership Conference on Civil Rights 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword The Flames of Hatred From Hate to Hurt: The Scope of the Problem The crimes The victims The attackers The hate groups and their strategies Organized or unorganized The Human Face of Hate Crimes Attacks upon African Americans Attacks upon Jews Attacks upon Hispanics Attacks upon Asian-Pacific Americans Attacks upon Arab-Americans Attacks upon Gays and Lesbians Attacks upon Women America Answers Hate Crimes: What is being done The federal response The state and local response Private initiatives Recommendations Acknowledgments Endnotes ---------- Foreword For almost half a century, the Leadership Council on Civil Rights, and for more than a quarter century, the Leadership Conference Education Fund, have championed the idea that Americans of every heritage can live together, with equal rights and mutual respect Americans are proud that we are people with different backgrounds, faiths, viewpoints, and personal characteristics. But we are also one people, bound together not by bloodlines, but by our respect for human rights and the Constitution. Our diversity gives us variety and vitality. Our common commitment - to equal justice and equal opportunity for all - gives our nation unity and purpose. In this report, a coalition representing a cross-section of Americans - working together under the auspices of the Leadership Conference Educaton Fund and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights - addresses and assesses the problem of what has come to be called "hate crimes." ---------- Flames of Hatred Just around the holiday season, in December, 1994, a flyer was tacked to the door of the Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville, South Carolina.1 The message on the door of this African-American church was at odds with the Christmas spirit of peace and good will: It was an announcement of a Ku Klux Klan rally. Six months later, after nightfall on June 20, 1995, the Macedonia Baptist Church was burned to the ground. Earlier that same morning, another African-American Church, the Mount Zion AME Church in nearby Greelyville, S.C., had also burned to the ground. Local police arrested two young white men, Christopher Cox, 22, and Timothy Adron Welch, 23, in connection with the fires. The county sheriff, Hoyt Collins, said Welch was carrying a membership card for the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, one of the most active white supremacist groups in the state, when he was arrested. Indicted for arson under state law, Cox and Welch have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Meanwhile, two former Klansmen who federal authorities say masterminded the burning of the predominately black church in Bloomville were indicted recently on civil rights violations. The indictment also charges the two men with burning a Hispanic migrant camp in Manning, S.C. And the FBI is investigating the possibility that the fires at these two churches in Clarendon County, S.C., are linked to fires at other African- American houses of worship throughout the country. From January 1, 1995, through June 27, 1996, there were 73 suspicious fires or acts of desecration at African-American churches.2 For African-Americans and all Americans of good will, this wave of church burnings has prompted outrage and alarm. And it is awakening bitter memories of racist violence during the civil rights struggle - particularly the 1963 bombing of the Sixth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young girls. Appalling as it is, however, the searing image of burning churches stands for an even larger problem: the persistence of violent crimes against virtually every racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minority, as well as against women. The reaction of some to recent controversies over immigration, welfare, and the languages spoken in public places - issues that go to the heart of Americas identity as a caring, diverse and inclusive society - has increased the incidence of hate crimes against Hispanics, Asian- Pacific Americans, and others who are stereotyped, often inaccurately, as newcomers to this country. And the persistence of religious, ethnic, and sexual intolerance creates and contributes to a climate where hate crimes are perpetrated against Jews, Arab Americans, gays and lesbians, women and members of other groups at risk of attack. ---------- From Hate to Hurt: The Scope of the Problem The federal government's definition of hate crimes-and its annual reports on total reported incidents-paint only a partial portrait of the problem. ---------- The crimes: The Hate Crime Statistics Act defines hate crimes as acts in which individuals are victimized because of their "race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity." This definition fails to convey a deeper sense of the severity of hate crimes or their impact on individual victims, their families and communities, and our country. Nor does it address hate crimes against women simply because they are women. The definition in the federal Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act of 1994, includes women and persons with disabilities. In this statute, hate crimes are those in which "the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person." In 1993, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Wisconsin's hate crime statute, which enhances the sentence of crimes in which the perpetrator "intentionally selects" the victim "because of" his or her characteristics, Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 113 S. Ct. 2194 (1993). The Wisconsin law was carefully written not to punish a person's prejudicial opinions, but rather to punish criminal intent and conduct. Hate crimes are much more likely than other crimes to be acts of brutal violence. In comparison to other crimes, targets of hate violence are singled out because of their membership in a social group. Perpetrators are more likely to be marauding groups of predators looking for targets for their hatred. However, they can also be acquaintances, intimate partners or family members.7 Because the intention is to hurt, maim, or kill, hate-motivated crimes are five times as likely as other crimes to involve assault. And these assaults are twice as likely as other assaults to cause injury and to result in hospitalization.8 Thus, the individual victim of a hate crime is more likely to be severely injured in body, and in spirit as well, than the victim of an ordinary offense. Unlike someone who is robbed of a wallet, someone who is attacked for no reason except their membership in a targeted class is more likely to be beaten out of sheer cruelty. And-while crime victims often ask, "Why me?"-the answers are perhaps more hurtful for victims of hate crimes. Victims of hate crimes experience psychic pain regardless of the motivation of the crime. However, it is one thing to be victimized for walking down a deserted street or wearing an expensive wristwatch; but it is perhaps more painful to be victimized simply for who you are. The cruelty of these crimes is magnified because they remind the victims of terrible things that had been done in the past to members of their group, or to them, their families, or their friends-pogroms against Jews, lynchings of blacks, rapes and beatings of women, lesbians and gay men, or grim memories in the minds of other groups. As for the communities hit by hate crimes, these incidents make targeted individuals feel even more angry and alienated, increasing intergroup tensions of all kinds. Because victims are singled out because of who they are-and the targets of hate crimes are often community institutions such as synagogues or black churches-members of entire groups feel isolated and defenseless. Others, such as a survivor of domestic violence, must live with the fear and isolation of ongoing assaults. Rightly or wrongly, they often blame the police, the government, and other segments of society for their feelings of vulnerability. Sometimes, members of the groups that have been victimized lash out against members of other groups. Thus, hate crimes can set in motion a never-ending spiral of antagonism and divisiveness. ---------- The victims: Official statistics illuminate-but, greatly understate-the scope of the problem. As required by the 1990 law, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) releases the totals each year for the numbers of hate crimes reported by state and local law enforcement agencies around the country based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity. These national totals have fluctuated around 6,000 or more hate crimes reported each year-6,918 in 1992, 7,587 in 1993, 5,852 in 1994 and 7,947 in 1995. It should be noted that these are figures for "incidents." The same incident may include several different "offenses"-for instance, an arson or assault may also result in death. While more than 25,000 hate crimes reported in four years are alarming enough, the FBI statistics paint only a partial portrait of the problem. In 1994, for instance, the total number of law enforcement agencies that reported hate crimes to the FBI covered only 58% of the population of the United States. In 1995, the number of reporting agencies covered 75% of the population. The findings reflect only those cases where the victims reported incidents to local law enforcement agencies, and these agencies had classified these incidents as hate crimes. In 1995, the FBI reported 355 incidents of hate crimes against Asian Pacific Islanders. For the same year, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium's 1995 audit reported 458 incidents of hateful speech and hate crimes, and concluded that "anti-Asian violence is widely underreported."9 Further, the FBI collects no statistics on gender-based hate crimes, and its definition may exclude other forms of bias crimes such as attacks on Arab-Americans." Yet even these incomplete statistics suggest the scope and sweep of the problem. Thus, of the 7,947 total incidents and 9,895 total offenses reported in 1995, there were 7,144 crimes against persons. These crimes included 4,048 acts of intimidation, 1,796 simple assaults, 1,268 aggravated assaults, 20 murders and 12 forcible rapes. Sixty percent of the incidents were motivated by racial bias, 16 percent by religious bias, 13 percent by sexual-orientation bias, and 10 percent by bias against the victims" ethnicity or national origin. All in all, there were 10,469 victims and 8,433 known offenders, not including offenses against women as a class. ---------- The attackers: As for the perpetrators of hate crimes, a surprisingly large number may be youthful thrill-seekers, rather than hardcore haters. According to a study conducted in 1993 for Northeastern University, 60% of offenders committed crimes for the "thrill associated with the victimization."10 Often, the perpetrators hoped their acts of violence would gain respect from their friends-a feeling that explains why so many hate crimes are committed by gangs of young men. As one young "gaybasher" explained: "We were trying to be tough to each other. It was like a game of chicken-someone dared you to do something, and there was no backing down."11 The second most common perpetrator of hate crimes, reported under the Act is the "reactive offender" who feels that he's answering an attack by his victim-a perceived insult, interracial dating, the integration of his neighborhood, or his battered wife's decision to leave. Often, the "reactive offenders" imagine that the very existence of lesbians and gay men-or having to compete with women on the job-is an assault upon their values or their own identity. The least common offender, reported under the act, is the hard-core fanatic, imbued with the ideology of racial, religious, or ethnic bigotry and often a member of, or a potential recruit for, an extremist organization. While the oldest organized hate groups appear to be on the decline, new strategies are emerging where organized hatemongers incite impressionable individuals to commit acts of violence against targeted minorities. ---------- The hate groups and their strategies: Membership in the oldest and prototypical hate groups, the various groups that bear the name "Ku Klux Klan," is near a historic low of about 5500.12 Another 17,000 people belong to similar groups. But these relatively low and seemingly declining numbers ought not lead people of good will to minimize the dangers of organized hate violence. In part, the decline in organized hate groups is a tribute to the efforts of their opponents. For instance, in 1987 a lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center resulted in a $7 million judgment against the United States Klans of America. In 1993, the Center shut down the Invisible Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. And, together with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), successfully litigated a $12.5 million judgment against the White Aryan Resistance. 13 But, with the success of these lawsuits, hate groups have adopted a new strategy. Instead of orchestrating and perpetrating their own acts of violence, the new hate groups increasingly are advancing their views through the Internet, literature distribution, broadcasts over public access television, and grassroots organizing. 14 The question for many is: How do we preserve the constitutional right to free speech, while countering the calls to bigotry and even violence? Brian Levin, Project Director of Klanwatch, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, says: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * "There are racist, horrific, godless messages on the Net that encourage people to violence. They can say that every Black in the United States should be killed, that there should be another Holocaust. But the people posting these messages can't be prosecuted because they can't be specifically linked to subsequent action." 15 Jerry Berman, Executive Director, Center for Democracy and Technology, said in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Government: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * "The question facing us, as an open society is how to respond to the most controversial and extreme uses of this new technology, this electronic, global Gutenberg printing press that turns all citizens into publishers who can reach thousands and even millions of people around the country and the world. As an open society, governed by the democratic principles of the First and Fourth Amendments, we tolerate and even encourage robust debate, advocacy and exchange of information on all subjects and in all media of expression, without exception...Constitutional law and long-standing law enforcement policy have dictated great restraint in order to avoid chilling legitimate speech activity."16 In short, the answer is to counter hate speech with more compelling speech promoting the vision of an America where we live together in mutual respect and celebrate our diversity. Several civil rights organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, ACLU, and the Simon Wisenthal Center have already begun this process, and the LCCR and LCEF will soon launch a joint Web Page to answer the hatemongers, advance intergroup relations, and promote an appreciation of how the civil rights movement has changed our country for the better. Hate groups are recruiting among two very different sectors of the Hate groups are recruiting among two very different sectors of the population-young people alienated from society and more mainstream adults who are angry at the federal government. 17 Among young people, some of the readiest recruits are racist "skinheads." The "skinheads" are a cultural phenomenon dating back to the 1970's in Great Britain and the '80s here in the United States. In response to the counterculture of the '60s which favored long hair, androgynous attire, and easygoing attitudes towards life, some working class young people adopted the opposite style of grooming and clothing-shaven heads, tight-fitting jeans, and steel-toed boots. To be sure, the great majority of "skinheads" were neither violent nor racist-indeed, some espoused interracial harmony. But some skinheads were drawn to racism and violence, attacking blacks, Jews, gays, and members of other minorities.18 According to the ADL, the number of racist skinheads tripled in their first five years on the American scene, and at least 37 killings can be attributed to them.19 Another pool of recruits comes from the self-styled "militia" movements, paramilitary groups that are on the rise throughout the country and that attracted attention as possible suspects in the bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City in April, 1995. According to the most recent ADL report, militias have operated in at least 40 states, with membership numbering at least 15,000. 20 To be sure, these groups appeal to opponents of government actions, such as taxation, gun control, and environmental regulations, and are more likely to espouse conspiracy theories about the Federal Reserve Board or the United Nations than explicitly racist doctrines about blacks or Jews. Nonetheless, some of the militia organizers have been associated with racist groups, such as Aryan Nations or the Klans. And, like other extremist movements, they use groups such as the militias to recruit people to their views. Ken Toole of the Montana Human Rights Network uses a vivid metaphor to explain how hate groups recruit new followers by appealing to anti-government activists in the militias. "It's like a funnel moving through space," Toole says. "At the front end, it's picking up lots and lots of people by hitting on issues which enrage many people here out West. Then you go a little bit further into the funnel, and it's about ideology, about the oppressiveness of the federal government. Then, further in, you get into the belief systems. The conspiracy. The Illuminati. The Freemasons. Then, it's about the anti-Semitic conspiracy. Finally, at the narrowest end of the funnel, you're drawn into the hard core, where you get someone like Tim McVeigh [the accused Oklahoma City bomber] popping out."21 All in all, there are 150,000 to 200,000 hate group sympathizers, according to the Center for Democratic Renewal. And, according to Klanwatch, law enforcement officials have recovered a vast array of weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, military explosives, grenades, military assault rifles, Uzis, and other types of machine guns from hate groups and their sympathizers. ---------- Organized or unorganized-cause for concern: All this suggests that we may be witnessing not the decline of organized hate groups but their evolution. Just as we must remain vigilant against the Klan, so we must monitor and oppose the new breed of hate groups and paramilitary organizations. While it is reassuring that the statistics indicate relatively few people who commit hate crimes are committed members of hate groups, the predominance of less-dedicated offenders also argues for national action. These offenders have caught the viruses of bigotry and violence that exist throughout our society-indeed, many believe that attacking members of minority groups or women will gain them the esteem of others. By changing the climate of opinion in our communities and conducting special programs to deter would-be offenders and rehabilitate existing ones, we can reduce the number of hate crimes. ---------- The Human Face of Hate Crimes In this most diverse society on earth, all of us are members of one or another minority - racial, religious, ethnic, cultural, national origin, sexual. That is why so many of us are vulnerable to hate crimes, and why violence motivated by bigotry has targeted so many different segments of society: African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans; Jewish-Americans and Arab-Americans; Native Americans; recent immigrants; women; and gays and lesbians, to name just a few. Of the 7,947 hate crime incidents reported to the FBI in 1995, sixty percent - 4,831- were motivated by race. Of these, 2,988 were anti-black, 1,226 were anti-white, 355 were directed against Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders, 221 were directed against multi-racial groups, and 41 were directed against Native Americans or Alaskan Natives. Second to racially motivated hate crimes were hate crimes motivated by religious bigotry - 1,277 incidents in 1995. Of these, 1,058 - approximately 82% - were directed against Jews. The third major category of hate crimes, accounting for 1,019 incidents in 1995, was motivated by animus against the victims' sexual orientation. Of these, 735 were directed against male homosexuals and 146 against lesbians. The fourth category - ethnicity/national origin - accounted for 814 incidents with sixty three percent (516) directed toward Hispanics. There is no systematic documentation of hate crimes against women because they are women, but women of all races and ethnic groups, and all social classes are targets of hate crimes.22 These stories convey a sense of how hate crimes victimize Americans of different races, religions, ethnic groups, and sexual orientation, as well as women. ---------- Attacks upon African-Americans: Among groups currently included in the Hate Crime Statistics Act, the greatest number of hate crimes of any kind are perpetrated against African-Americans. From the lynching to the cross-burning and the church-burning, anti-black violence has been and still remains the prototypical hate crime - an action intended not only to injure individuals but to intimidate an entire group of people. Hate crimes against African-Americans impact upon the entire society not only for the hurt they cause but for the history they recall, and perpetuate. That is why the epidemic of fires at black churches has generated so much concern. Churches have always been the most important independent institution in the black community, and those who would attack African-Americans have often attacked their churches. As the historian C. Eric Lincoln writes in his recent book, Coming Through the Fire: Surviving Race and Place in America, the first recorded arson of a black church took place in South Carolina in 1822. White mobs torched black churches in Cincinnati in 1829 and in Philadelphia during the 1830's. After the Civil War, in their efforts to terrorize blacks and restore white supremacy, the Ku Klux Klan targeted black churches for vandalism and arson.23 This long and painful history still casts a long shadow. As Deval Patrick, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, recently declared: "In our society, arson of a church attended predominantly by African Americans carries a unique and menacing threat - that those individuals are physically vulnerable because of their race."24 As civil rights activism and the desegregation of public schools and public facilities stepped up during the 1950's and '60s, so did burnings and bombings of black churches, Jewish synagogues, and other houses of worship whose congregations were multiracial or whose clergy supported integration. While there were hundreds of attacks on churches and synagogues, the most infamous was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where four young girls were crushed to death. An example of the historic continuity in the attacks upon black churches is the troubled history of St. John Baptist Church in Dixiana, South Carolina. Founded in 1765, the church has been the target of attacks throughout its history - a period that spans the eras of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, segregation, and civil rights.25 In 1983, while Sunday services were underway, a group of whites shot out the church's windows. Coming back later in the day, they scrawled "KKK" on the door, destroyed the piano, smashed the crucifix, tore up the Bibles, scattered beer cans on the pews, and even defecated on the sacrament cloth. Over the next 12 years, more than 200 people were arrested for acts of vandalism against the church. Then, on August 15, 1995, the church was burned down. And, in May, 1996, three white teenagers were arrested and charged with burning down the church. St. John Baptist Church was one of at least 73 African-American churches that suffered suspicious fires or acts of desecration since January 1, 1995. While the great majority of the incidents took place in the South, other parts of the country have not been immune. For instance, in January, 1994, two members of the Fourth Reich Skinheads were sentenced to prison terms for plotting an attack on the historic First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South-Central Los Angeles. The racist skinheads had hoped that the attack, which was averted by their arrest, would trigger a race war.26 As the church-burnings have aroused increasing public concern, several commentators, including the editorial page of the New York Post, have called the issue a "hoax."27 While there is not definitive evidence of a national conspiracy - and civil rights advocates have not contended there is - these facts cannot be obscured: * 73 predominantly black churches have been burned or desecrated since January, 1995. * A USA Today investigation found that, although a number of white churches have burned since January 1995, the rate of black church arsons is more than double what it had been in earlier years. And, of course, there are many fewer black churches (65,000) than white churches (300,000), so a much higher percentage of black churches have been burned.28 * The USA Today investigation also found "two well-defined geographic clusters or 'Arson zones' where black church arsons are up sharply over the last three years." The zones are: * 1) a 200-mile oval in the mid-South that encompasses western Tennessee and parts of Alabama and Mississippi," and * 2) another area that "stretches across the Carolinas, where the rate of black church arsons has tripled since 1993."29 * Of those who have been arrested or prosecuted for destroying black churches since 1990, the majority have been white males between the ages of 14 and 45. And, of the 39 people who have been arrested in the arsons that occurred since January 1995, 26 have been white, 13 black. * Since 1990, at least 13 of the arsons of black churches took place in January around the holiday commemorating the birth of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. All this suggests that President Clinton is correct: "We do not have evidence of a national conspiracy, but it is clear that racial hostility is the driving force behind a number of these incidents. This must stop." As with hate crimes against other groups, acts of violence and intimidation against African-Americans are by no means confined to the destruction of houses of worship. Other examples of hate crimes against blacks include: * On December 7, 1995, two African American residents of Fayetteville, North Carolina, were brutally and senselessly murdered by three soldiers who apparently identified themselves as neo-Nazi skin heads. Police said the soldiers were looking for black people to harass and shot the victims as they were walking down the street. A federal investigator later said, "This [crime] gives new meaning to the definition of a hate crime."30 * On Friday, March 29, 1996, an African-American woman, Bridget Ward, and her two daughters, Jamila, 9, and Jasmine, 3, moved into a rented home in the virtually all-white Philadelphia neighborhood of Bridesburg. Late that night, she heard young people marching down the street, chanting, "Burn, motherf--, burn." The next morning, Ward, who works as a nurse's aide, found racial slurs smeared on her house, ketchup spilled on the front side walk and back porch, and an oily liquid was splattered in the rear. From Mayor Rendell to ordinary citizens, including many of Ward's neighbors, most Philadelphians were horrified by the incident. Police patrols were stepped up on the block, and the department's Crisis Prevention and Resolution Unit, which typically handles racial incidents, investigated the crime. But Ward continued to be subjected to racial harassment, including a letter threatening her and her children. Five weeks after she moved to Bridesburg, Ward announced her intention to move. The acts of racial hostility against the Ward family are typical of hate crimes intended to keep members of racial, ethnic, or religious minorities out of many neighborhoods.31 * In Fairfax County, Virginia, an affluent community near Washington, D.C., in 1993, a 41-year-old black woman heard the doorbell ring at the home where she was house-sitting. When she looked out the window, she saw a cross burning 10 feet from the front door.32 * A continent away, in 1994, in the Los Angeles suburb of South Gate, the white neighbors of a black woman burned a cross on her lawn, kicked her children, hanged and gassed her puppies, and placed "White Power" signs on her property.33 * In Orland Park, Illinois in 1995, a black man who was talking with a white woman was attacked by a 25-year old white male who yelled racial slurs during the attack.34 * In Berwick, Pa. a car driven by a black woman was struck repeatedly by a white man who yelled racial slurs and threatened to kill her and her son.35 * In Harper Woods, Michigan, a black couple was threatened by a white man who said he would kill and dismember them if they moved into his neighborhood.36 ---------- * Attacks upon Jews: Of attacks upon individuals or institutions because of their religion, the overwhelming majority - 82% of such crimes reported by the FBI for 1995 - were directed against Jews. As with attacks upon African-Americans, hate crimes against Jews draw upon centuries of such assaults, from the pogroms of Eastern Europe to the Nazi Holocaust to the cross-burnings of the Ku Klux Klan in this country. Hate crimes against Jews in the United States range from physical assaults upon individuals to desecrations of synagogues and cemeteries and the painting of swastikas on private homes. As with hateful acts upon other minorities, the pain is increased by arousing feelings of vulnerability and memories of persecution, even extermination, in other countries and in other times. Hatred against Jews is fed by slanders and stereotypes that have their origins in Europe extending back for centuries. These range far beyond the view that Jews were "Christ-killers" and include conspiracy theories involving "international bankers," the State of Israel, and groups ranging from communists to freemasons. Such views are spread by groups on the political right as well as on the left who find little basis for agreement except for their anti-Semitism. As in the past, these extremists have tried to exploit the hardships of Americans from unemployed industrial workers to hard pressed farmers. Similarly, extremists associated with some black nationalist groups have promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories within the black community, exploiting the pain of poverty and discrimination and exacerbating tensions between African-Americans and Jews. In a private survey of anti-semitic incidents [it is important to note that this survey includes hateful speech as well as hate crimes] reported to the ADL in 1995, the group found 1,843 acts against property or persons. This included 1,116 incidents of harassment and 727 incidents of vandalism. 37 crimes against Jews include: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * On July 16, 1995, in Cincinnati, a group of youths assaulted the son of a community rabbi, chasing him for about a block before they caught him outside the synagogue and beat him until he collapsed on the street. The next day, the group assaulted a 58-year-old recent immigrant from Russia in his own driveway. A group of five young men, aged 15 to 18, was arrested and convicted for the assaults. At the sentencing, the judge asked one of the young men, Brian Scherrer, why he had committed the crimes. He explained the attacks were part of a gang initiation and that one victim was chosen because "He was Jewish."38 ----------------------------------------------------------------- * On August 19, 1991, a traffic accident in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (a community with a long history of racial and religious animosity among African-Americans, Hasidic Jews, and Caribbean Nationals) resulted in the tragic death of seven- year old African-American Gavin Cato and injury to his cousin, Angela. The driver of the car was part of Grand Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson's motorcade. The Grand Rebbe was a religious leader of Lubavitch Hasidic Jews. A riot followed over three days during which crowds roamed the streets yelling "Get the Jews" and "Heil Hitler." Jewish-owned homes, cars and other property were attacked. Yankel Rosenbaum, an Australian scholar, was stopped by a gang of twenty youngsters who yelled "Get the Jew." Rosenbaum was assaulted, held down, stabbed, and left bleeding on a car hood. He died.39 ----------------------------------------------------------------- * In Phoenix, Arizona, crime of vandalism erupted. A Maltese Cross, SS lightning bolts, "Dirty Jews go to Auschwitz," "Sieg Heil," and a swastika were spray painted on the Temple Beth El Congregation.40 ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Freddy's Fashion Mart was a Jewish-owned store in Harlem, New York, that rented space from a black church and sublet some of that space to a black-owned record store. The land lord and owner of Freddy's wanted the Fashion Mart to expand. The owner of the record store didn't want to move and a protest of Freddy's was begun. Some people on the picket line, and their supporters, regularly engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric. On December 8, 1995,Roland Smith, one of the protesters, entered the store with a gun and lighter fluid. He doused the store and set it on fire. Eight people -including Smith - died. Although none were Jewish, anti-semitism strife was an underlying factor. 41 ---------- Attacks upon Hispanics: Of 814 hate crimes in 1995 that were motivated by bias based on ethnicity or national origin, 63.3% - 516 in all - were directed against Hispanics. In California and throughout the Southwest, long-existing antagonisms against Hispanics have been aggravated by the furor over immigration. With job opportunities declining at a time of defense cutbacks and economic recession, there have been renewed calls for restrictions against legal immigration and harsh measures against undocumented immigrants. In November, 1994, 59% of California voters approved a statewide referendum proposal, Proposition 187, which declares undocumented immigrants ineligible for most public services, including public education and non-emergency health care. As with attacks upon African-Americans and Jews, attacks upon Hispanics are part of a history of hatred. In California and throughout the Southwest, there have been recurring periods of "nativism," when not only newcomers but longtime U.S. citizens of Mexican descent have been blamed for social and economic problems. During the Depression of the 1930's, citizens and non-citizens of Mexican descent were the targets of mass deportations, with a half million "dumped" across the border in Mexico. In the early 1950's, a paramilitary effort, with the degrading name "Operation Wetback," deported tens of thousands of Mexicans from California and several other southwestern states. The historian Juan Ramon Garcia describes the climate of fear and hatred that existed from the 1930's through the '50s: "The image of the mysterious, sneaky, faceless "illegal" was once again stamped into the minds of many. Once this was accomplished, "illegals" became something less than human, with their arbitrary removal being that much easier to justify and accomplish." While illegal immigration and its impact on public services is a legitimate concern, much of the recent debate has echoed the nativist rhetoric of earlier eras. For instance, Ruth Coffey, the founder of Stop Immigration Now, told the Los Angeles Times: "I have no intention of being the object of "conquest," peaceful or otherwise, by Latinos, Asians, Blacks, Arabs, or any other group of individuals who have claimed my country." And Glenn Spencer, president of Voices of Citizens Together, which collected 40,000 signatures to qualify Proposition 187 for the ballot, said: "We have to take direct and immediate action to preserve this culture and this nation we have spent two centuries building up." During the emotionally charged debate over Proposition 187, hate speech and violent acts against Latinos increased dramatically. And, in the aftermath of the approval of 187, civil rights violations against Latinos went on the upswing, with most of the cases involving United States citizens or permanent legal residents. All in all, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area alone, the County Human Relations Commission documented an 11.9% increase in hate crimes against Latinos in 1994.42 For example: * On November 12, 1994, Graziella Fuentes (54) was taking her daily one mile walk through the suburban San Fernando Valley, when eight young males 14 to 17 years old shouted at her that now that Proposition 187 has passed, she should go back to Mexico. After calling her "wetback" and other names, they threw rocks at her hitting her on the head and back. 43 Bigotry and hate crimes against Hispanics are not confined to California and the Southwest. From the Midwest, to the Northeast, to Florida, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Americans, and immigrants from other countries in Central and South America have been the targets of harassment and violence. Here are several examples of hate crimes against Hispanics over the years: * In the summer of 1995, Allen Adams and Tad Page were sentenced to 88 and 70 months, respectively, for their roles in the ethnically motivated shooting of four Latinos in Livermore, Maine. Three of the shooting victims were migrant laborers working in an egg farm, while the fourth was visiting his ailing mother, a migrant worker. The incident began at a store, where the victims were trying to make a purchase. Adams and Page, who were also at the store, taunted the victims with ethnic epithets, telling them: "Go back to Mexico or [we'll] send you there in a bodybag." After the victims drove away from the store, Adams and Page chased them by car, firing 11 rounds from a nine millimeter handgun at the victims' automobile. One victim was shot in the arm, while another bullet hit the driver's headrest, just a few centimeters from the driver.44 * On June 11, 1995, arsonists burned down the home of a Latino family in the Antelope Valley, California, city of Palmdale. They spray-painted these messages on the walls: "White [sic] power" and "your family dies." 45 * A Hispanic man at a camp for homeless migrant workers in Alpine, Calif., was beaten with baseball bats by six white men in October, 1992. The assailants later reportedly bragged about "kicking Mexican ass." 46 While not the focus of this report there have been well publicized reports of severe police beatings of Hispanics suspected of being undocumented immigrants. * In April 1996, two Riverside County, California sheriff's deputies were videotaped beating two suspected undocumented Mexican immigrants. The man and woman were continuously struck with batons and the woman was pulled to the ground by her hair. 47 Bobbi Murray, an official with the Coalition for Human immigrants' Rights of Los Angeles said in response to the beating: "We were really sickened when we saw it. But we're not inordinately surprised because we've been concerned for a long time that this inflamed election year rhetoric of bashing immigrants and singling them out as an enemy creates an atmosphere that gives license to this sort of stuff."48 Hispanic rights organizations charge that Hispanic-Americans are often targets of a growing trend of abuse by private citizens and local law enforcement officials. They attribute the increasing abuse in part to the hostile political climate in which anyone who is perceived as an immigrant becomes a target for "enforcement" activities that are excessive, inappropriate, and often illegal. ---------- * Attacks upon Asian Pacific Americans: Anti-immigrant sentiment also seems to be feeding attacks upon Asian-Americans. A study found that there were 461 anti-Asian incidents reported in 1995 - 2% more than in 1994 and 38% more than in 1993. The violence of the incidents increased dramatically, with assaults rising by almost 11%, aggravated assaults by 14%, and two murders and one firebomb attack committed. The number and severity of the incidents increased significantly in the two largest states, California and New York. 49 As with other minorities, violence against Asian-Americans feeds upon longstanding discrimination and contemporary tensions. Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian-Americans have been subjected to cycles of intolerance since they first arrived in the United States more than a century-and-a-half ago. In the mines and on the railroads in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Chinese-Americans were exploited as cheap labor by their employers and bitterly resented by other workers. Soon, the courts were treating Chinese-Americans as second-class citizens. In People v. Hall, the California Supreme Court prohibited people of Chinese descent from testifying in cases involving whites. This decision shielded whites from prosecution for crimes committed against Chinese-Americans. And it made Chinese-Americans even more vulnerable to violence and discrimination. For instance, in 1887 in Hells Canyon, Oregon, 31 Chinese gold miners were shot to death. Their six killers either escaped or were acquitted. During the years before and during World War II, as Japan became the enemy of the United States, Japanese-Americans were treated as a threat to the nation. They were targeted for an unprecedented and egregious violation of civil rights - forcible relocation to internment camps, with complete disregard for their rights to due process. And, even though China was an ally of the United States, Chinese-Americans were also occasionally subject to hostility by whites who felt that all Asians were the enemy. In recent decades, Asian Pacific Americans have been the targets of a range of resentments. Anti-Japanese sentiments remaining from World War II have been exacerbated by the resentment of economic competition from Japan and, more recently, South Korea. Although they are likely to have supported the governments of South Vietnam, Vietnamese immigrants have been the target of Americans' shame and anger at our defeat in the war in their native land. Since those who tend towards intolerance are often unable to distinguish one national origin minority from another, these resentments have spilled over into hostility towards all Asian Pacific Americans. Meanwhile, for those who hate non-whites or fear immigrants and their children, Asian Pacific Americans are one more target for their free-floating rage. And these antagonisms have been aggravated by the stereotype of Asian Pacific Americans as "a model minority" - harder-working, more successful in school, and supposedly more affluent than most Americans. It is an image remarkably similar to the stereotype of Jews - a stereotype that fuels a mixture of admiration and resentment. In addition, some people do not accept Asian Pacific Americans as legitimate Americans viewing them as perpetual foreigners. These examples illustrate the range of hate crimes against Asian Pacific Americans: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * A 19-year-old Vietnamese American pre-med student in Coral Springs, Fla., was beaten to death in August, 1992, by a mob of white youths who called him "chink" and "Vietcong."50 ----------------------------------------------------------------- * On the afternoon of November 8, 1995, in the parking lot of a supermarket in Novato, California, Eddy Wu, a 23-year-old Chinese-American, was carrying groceries to his car when he was attacked by Robert Page, who stabbed him twice. Chasing Wu into the super market, Page stabbed him two more times. Wu suffered several serious injuries, including a punctured lung. In his confession, Page, an unemployed musician, said: "I didn't have anything to do when I woke up. No friends were around. It seemed that no one wanted to be around me. So I figured, "What the f- - I'm going to kill me a Chinaman."" He also said he wanted to kill an Asian because they "got all the good jobs." Page pleaded guilty to attempted murder and a hate crime, and was sentenced to eleven years.51 * In August 1995, at a nightclub in Orange, California, an Asian Indian male was struck in the head with a metal pipe during a confrontation with a group of skinheads. 52 * In October 1995, in San Francisco, California, a white male dressed in skin head attire kicked a Pilipino male's leg, breaking his bone, and declared to him, "Death to all minorities."53 * On June 18, 1995, Thanh Mai, 23, and two other Vietnamese-American friends visited a teen nightclub in Alpine Township, Michigan. At one point during the evening, when he was sitting alone, Mai was accosted by three drunken young white men who taunted him, "What the f-- are you looking at, gook?" Mai tried to walk away, but one of the young men, Michael Hallman, hit him in the face. Mai fell to the cement floor with such force that his skull split open, sending him into convulsions. He died five days later from major head trauma. Hallman was tried in January, 1996, and sentenced to only two to fifteen years for manslaughter. The prosecuting attorney did not seek hate crime penalty enhancement, denying that adequate evidence existed under the existing statute. 54 ---------- Attacks upon Arab-Americans: Especially in times of crisis in the Middle East or during incidents of domestic terrorism, the two to three million Americans of Arab descent are vulnerable to hostility, harassment, and violence. But, because the federal government does not recognize Arab-Americans as a distinct ethnic group, the Justice Department does not report on how many hate crimes are committed each year against Arab-Americans.55 Arab-Americans suffer from being stereotyped as everything from exotic belly-dancers to desert nomads, terrorists, religious fanatics, and oil-rich sheiks. As with Jewish-Americans and Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans are often resented by residents of communities where they run small businesses. Arab Americans, many of whom are recent immigrants, must also deal with problems of nativism and anti-immigrant attitudes similar to that faced by Hispanics and Asian Americans. Too often, the media blame Arabs or Muslims for incidents to which they have no connection, such as the bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City.56 In fact, at least 227 incidents of harassment of Muslims were reported in a three-day period following the Oklahoma City bombing. 57 As with African-Americans and Jews, houses of worship are especially vulnerable. During 1995, at least seven mosques were burned down or seriously vandalized.58 Illustrative of the types of hate crimes directed against Arab-Americans are: * In Aurora, Colorado, a campus chapter of the American Arab Discrimination Committee received threatening letters and telephone calls as it sought to organize an "Arab Awareness Week." In an apparent effort to discourage the effort, the president of the chapter was assaulted on campus by two individuals. 59 * In Oklahoma City, following the bombing of the federal office building, an Iraqi refugee in her mid 20s, miscarried her near-term baby after an April 20th attack on her home. Unknown assailants pounded on the door of her home, broke windows and screamed anti-Islamic epithets.60 ---------- Attacks upon Gays and Lesbians: Attacks upon gays and lesbians are increasing in number and in severity. During 1995, 2,212 attacks on lesbians and gay men were documented by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs - an 8% increase over 1994.61 More alarmingly, these attacks are becoming more violent. Nearly 40% of total incidents in 1995 involved physical assaults or attempted assaults with a weapon. These incidents resulted in injuries to 711 victims. Thirty-seven percent - 265 - of the people who were injured suffered serious injury or death. Of the victims who were injured, 38% received medical treatment in an emergency room or on an out-patient basis, 10% were hospitalized, and 19% needed, but did not receive, medical attention. 62 Worst of all, there were 29 gay-related murders. Most murders were accompanied by hideous violence including mutilation. A sense of the brutality of the attacks can be conveyed by describing the weapons involved. In assaults involving weapons, bottles, bricks, and rocks were the most frequently used weapons, followed by bats, clubs, and blunt objects. Knives and other sharp objects were a close third. Gays and lesbians seem most at risk of attack when there is emotionally charged political debate and heightened media coverage about their rights and their role in society. In recent years, these issues have been raised in the controversies over gays in the military, gay marriage, and referenda in Oregon, Colorado, Maine, and other states and local communities. As with controversies about affirmative action and immigration, debates about gay/lesbian issues often demonize the members of minorities already subject to discrimination. As with African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities, gays and lesbians often feel isolated and vulnerable because of the difficult relationship between their communities and many police departments. That is one reason why the rate of reporting incidents of violence against gays and lesbians to the police - an estimated 36% in 1995 - is significantly less than the estimated reporting rate of 48% for all crimes. Moreover, even when victims reported an incident to the police and stressed its biased nature, more than half the time police failed to classify the incidents as bias-motivated.63 These incidents from 1995 are examples of the kinds of crimes committed against gays and lesbians: * In Jackson Heights, New York, a 24-year-old gay man who was distributing HIV-related information was assaulted with a knife by a 17- year-old man. The victim suffered a severe cut on his elbow requiring medical attention. The perpetrator repeatedly referred to the victim as "faggot." The case is being prosecuted by the District Attorney's office as a bias crime. 64 * In Washington, D.C., three men accosted a gay man walking in a park and, at gun-point, forced him to go under a bridge. There, they beat him viciously. Before losing consciousness, he heard one of his assailants say, "We're going to teach this f--ing faggot a lesson!"65 * In Minneapolis, Minnesota, soon after moving to a new apartment, an African-American lesbian found a note reading "Hate Nigger Faggots" at her door. Over the next several weeks, she and her child were the target of verbal slurs from their neighbors, including: "You dyke," "you faggot," and "you nigger." After a burned cross was left outside her door, she moved.66 Another sexual minority that is subject to violence is "transgendered" people, an umbrella term that includes transsexuals, cross-dressers, intersexed people (also known as hermaphrodites), and others whose sexual identity appears ambiguous. Transgendered people have been assaulted, raped, or murdered; these crimes should be included in the Hate Crime Statistics Act. ---------- Attacks upon Women - cause for concern and for classification as hate crimes: In recent years, many women's advocates have spoken out about the alarming rate of violent physical and sexual assaults against women. Although the most common forms of violence against women have traditionally been viewed as "personal attacks," or even the victim's "own fault," there is growing recognition that, as one woman's advocate testified before Congress: "women and girls....are exposed to terror, brutality, serious injury, and even death because of their sex." 67 Society is beginning to realize that many assaults against women are not "random" acts of violence but are actually bias-related crimes. However, the Hate Crime Statistics Act was passed, signed into law, and recently reauthorized without including hate crimes against women as a class.68 Other federal laws and many state hate crime statutes also exclude bias crimes targeting women.69 This is wrong - and should be corrected. As with hate crimes against racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, hate crimes against women are a form of discrimination. Gender-motivated violence reflects some men's efforts to dominate and control women. These crimes are encouraged by stereotypes of what women are and how women should act.70 And these crimes are often accompanied by hateful epithets against women as a group of people. To be sure, not every violent assault against a woman is a hate crime - just as not every crime against an African-American is based on bigotry. And, men as well as women face robbery on the street and burglary in the home. However, crimes that present evidence of bias against women should be considered hate crimes. And, with these crimes, society should look for identifying factors similar to those present in other hate crimes. These factors may include evidence of sexual assault, and the extreme brutality and cruelty that characterize bias-related crimes. 71 Many crimes against women reflect a resistance to their efforts to achieve equality. These crimes are often intended to intimidate women into staying in - or returning to - their "place" of subservience to men at home, in the workplace, and throughout society. Women of color experience discrimination based on gender as well as race, national origin, religion, language and sexual orientation. These forms of discrimination are not always separable. 72 And, without protections against gender-based attacks, such women's unique experiences of intersecting forms of prejudice cannot be fully recognized - or remedied. Because women as a class are not covered by the Hate Crime Statistics Act, the FBI keeps no records of gender-based hate crimes. Thus, there are no federal government surveys of hate crimes against women. However, statistics gathered on rapes and domestic assaults demonstrate the pervasiveness of violence against women. Approximately 683,000 adult women are raped each year.73 And, between 1992 and 1993, current and former husbands and other current and former intimate partners committed more than a million assaults, rapes, and murders against women.74 Some studies do attempt to identify the number of violent assaults against women that may be motivated by gender bias. For instance, in Arkansas, a mostly rural state with a population of 2.3 million, 81 women were murdered in 1990 in cases where robbery was not a motive, according to the Arkansas Women's Project.75 Some were raped and killed. Others were murdered with extreme cruelty and disfigurement. Examples of crimes that are committed against women because they are women include: * In Massachusetts in 1994, a "serial batterer" - a man who repeatedly sexually assaulted women with whom he lived - was found to have violated the state's hate crime law for his bias crimes against women. Four women recounted his abuse, including severe physical battering, rape, death threats, and constant verbal abuse.76 In addition, He called the women "whores," "bitches," and "sluts," and made derogatory comments that they - and all women - are weaker than men and not as smart as men.77 * In Arkansas, a woman was found stabbed approximately 130 times in the breasts, vagina, buttocks, both eyes and forehead, two days after her second wedding anniversary. Her husband was charged with the murder.78 ---------- America Answers Hate Crimes: What is being done The statistics and examples demonstrate that violence against women is a severe problem -and suggests that the violence includes many bias-related crimes. The lack of precise data only highlights the need for resources to study and track the problem. ---------- The federal response: Under the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 and its extension in 1996, the Attorney General collects data on the number of crimes committed each year that are motivated by "prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity." The Attorney General has directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program to collect the data and produce annual reports. Meanwhile, the FBI has trained almost 3,700 staff members from almost 1,200 state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies on how to prevent, prosecute, and deal with the aftermath of hate crimes. In these training programs, the FBI works with the Justice Department's Community Relations Service (CRS). Created by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, CRS is the only federal agency whose most important purpose is to help communities cope with disputes among different racial, religious, and ethnic groups. CRS professionals have helped with Hate Crime Statistics Act training sessions for hundreds of law enforcement officials from dozens of police agencies around the country. In 1992, Congress approved several new programs under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act to combat hate crimes and reduce racial and religious prejudice: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Each state's juvenile delinquency plan must include a component designed to combat hate crimes. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * The Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Programs (OJJDP) is conducting a national assessment of youths who commit hate crimes, their motives, their victims, and the penalties they receive for their crimes. The OJJDP has provided $100,000 for this study. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * OJJDP has also provided a $50,000 grant to develop a curriculum for preventing and treating hate crimes by juveniles. In 1994, by a bipartisan majority, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, a comprehensive federal response to the national problem of violence against women.79 This legislative package includes $1.6 billion in funding over six years for improved law enforcement and prosecution programs, victims services such as domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers, and education and research programs. It also includes new domestic violence offenses, changes in immigration law and other legal forms. Most significantly, it includes a civil rights remedy -a provision allowing a woman to sue in federal or state court for an act of gender-motivated violence that rises to the level of a felony. 80 In the aftermath of the rash of fires at black churches, and with the strong support of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law the Church Arsons Prevention Act of 1996. With bipartisan sponsorship by Reps. Henry Hyde and John Conyers and Sens. Edward Kennedy and Lauch Faircloth, it enhances federal jurisdiction over and increases the federal penalties for the destruction of houses of worship. And Congress and the Administration provided $12 million for a federal investigation of the church fires. In addition, the Act gives a continuing mandate to the Hate Crime Statistics Act. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) has undertaken a project to produce radio public service announcements on discrimination and denials of equal protection of the law. The first PSA "Discrimination: Just Out of Tune with America," was recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter and began running in January, 1996. The next PSA which will be recorded by Bill Cosby will carry the theme "Teach Children the Need to Be Tolerant and to Value Differences." The USCCR held community forums on the church burnings in six Southern states "to conciliate, find facts and hear from people in the communities where the burnings took place." Transcripts of the forums and reports were issued on church burnings in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The United States has ratified two core international human rights treaties that are relevant to the problem of hate crimes. In 1992, the United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, undertaking an international commitment to ensure that everyone in the U.S. enjoys the rights outlined in the treaty, including the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, "without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." In 1995, the U.S. presented its first compliance report to the Human Rights Committee, the United Nations body charged with monitoring State performance. The U.S. Government outlined federal laws that prohibit hate crimes and cited recent prosecutions by the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division under these laws. In 1994, the United States ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which places additional responsibilities on States party to the treaty to take "special and concrete measures to ensure the...protection of certain racial groups or individuals belonging to them, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms." ---------- The state and local response: All of the states, with the exception of Nebraska, South Carolina, and Wyoming,81 and including the District of Columbia, have passed some form of hate crime statute. These laws have come in a variety of forms, including: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * outlawing vandalism against religious institutions, such as churches and synagogues. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Outlawing intimidation of individuals. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Allowing for civil actions against perpetrators of hate crimes. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Holding parents liable for the actions of their ----------------------------------------------------------------- * children. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Requiring states to compile statistics on hate crimes. In addition, some states have gone further by enacting statutes that "enhance" criminal penalties for hate-motivated crimes. On the local level, there is good news -but there are also indications of gaps in the monitoring of hate crimes. It is heartening that a growing number of law enforcement agencies are participating in data-collection under the Hate Crime Statistics Act. Almost 9,600 agencies participated in 1995 -an increase over the number of agencies that reported in 1994. But this still represents far fewer than the 16,000 agencies that regularly report other crime data to the FBI under the Bureau's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Another encouraging development is the founding of special bias units in a growing number of cities, including New York. (While creating the New York City unit was a positive step, there are still problems with under-reporting of hate crimes and police-community relations.) Officers in these squads are specially trained to be sensitive to victims of bias crimes. When victims find that police are sympathetic, they are more likely to report hate crimes and cooperate with investigations and prosecutions. And they make better witnesses at trials. Successful bias units develop working relationships with minority communities, with prosecutors, and with officers from different law enforcement agencies. This helps law enforcement agencies at every level prevent, investigate, and prosecute hate crimes. Yet another hopeful sign is the growing number of local governments that are sponsoring community education programs to reduce prejudice of all kinds and discourage hate crimes. In 1993, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Anti-Defamation League found that 72 cities -42% of those that responded to the survey -indicated that they sponsored or participated in local prejudice reduction programs. 82 In response to the outbreak of church arsons, three governors of southern and border states, James Hunt of North Carolina, David Beasley of South Carolina, and Don Sundquist of Tennessee, have set up commissions to examine and improve race relations. ---------- Private initiatives: Civil rights, religious, civic, educational, and business organizations have long played a leading role in combating bigotry and crimes motivated by bias. For instance, since 1992, the Leadership Conference Education Fund (LCEF) has been conducting an informational campaign in partnership with the Advertising Council to promote interracial understanding and combat bigotry of all kinds.83 The campaign includes public service announcements in English and Spanish, with the message:"Life's too short. Stop the hate." These TV and radio announcements were developed by the Mingo Group, a black-owned and managed advertising agency. In addition, with a contribution from the Procter and Gamble Fund, the LCEF is developing programs targeted to children to promote understanding and celebrate our diversity. With the Advertising Council and the Griffin Bacal agency, the LCEF developed the "Don't Be Afraid, Be a Friend" campaign to encourage children to make friends across racial, ethnic and disability lines and not to respond to the differences among people with fear and hate. The "Don't Be Afraid, Be a Friend" campaign has received more than $20 million of free television air time. In keeping with the children's theme, LCEF's new public service announcement, targeted at children 4-7 years of age, is based on a poem, "The Crayon Box that Talked," written by the President of Random House Entertainment. In addition to the partnership with the Advertising Council, the LCEF has worked with Nickelodeon, the children's cable television station, to produce vignettes on diversity and tolerance. The spots feature children of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds and a child in a wheelchair talking about diversity, getting to know each other, and how they would like to be perceived. And the LCEF has also developed a brochure for parents on why it is important to talk to children about racism, prejudice, and diversity. Similarly, the Anti-Defamation League has developed a number of hate crime training resources that are available to communities and law enforcement officials. These include a new comprehensive guide to hate crime laws, a seventeen-minute training video on the impact of hate crime and appropriate responses (prepared in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety), and a handbook of existing hate crime policies and procedures at large and small police departments. Meanwhile, the ADL's A World of Difference Institute has developed prejudice reduction initiatives for use by educators, employers, and civic leaders. These programs help people develop the skills, sensitivity, and knowledge to combat bigotry and encourage understanding and respect among diverse groups, from classrooms, to communities and workplaces. Another program dedicated to prejudice reduction is the American Jewish Committee's Hands Across the Campus program. In place in 15 cities and approximately 150 public and private schools, the program includes administrative, teacher and student training and lesson plans and student activities for use in English and social studies classes. People for the American Way's STAR (Students Talk About Race) Program trains college volunteers to lead discussions in high school and middle school classrooms to provide a forum for youth to share their personal thoughts and experiences, to reflect on complex issues like prejudice and citizen responsibility, and to learn the value of tolerance in today's society. In addition to the Southern Poverty Law Center's legal work against hate groups, its Teaching Tolerance project provides training and curriculum materials for teachers including the Teaching Tolerance Magazine. The Center has just established a Teaching Tolerance Institute that will bring together for the first time in the summer of 1997, 30, K-12 teachers for intensive training in tolerance and the development of tolerance-related action plans for their schools and communities. This year, public outrage over the arsons of black churches has prompted renewed efforts to promote racial reconciliation. Private citizens, businesses, religious and civic groups have raised more than $10 million to help small congregations rebuild their church buildings. In other gestures of support, bankers have offered low-interest loans and individuals have offered to help rebuild the churches themselves.84 The National Council of Churches has played a leading role in bringing Americans together to heal their differences and rebuild the churches. The council's general secretary, Joan Brown Campbell, said: "For the first time in almost 20 years, I see...the possibility of a partnership of white people, African-Americans, of Christians, Jews, and Muslims...I sense the possibility of a new coalition that wants to address the underlying issue of racism and bigotry."85 The Center for Democratic Renewal in collaboration with the National Council of Churches and Center for Constitutional Rights conducted a six-month preliminary investigation of the church burnings and issued the results of their investigation in Black Church Burnings in the South.86 These organizations and others, including LCEF and LCCR, co-hosted a leadership summit on hate crimes, Challenging Hate in America, in Atlanta in December 1996. Four leading human rights groups have launched a new initiative, "Bigotry Watch," to monitor and respond to acts of intolerance of all kinds throughout the nation. The effort's sponsors are the National Urban League, the Anti-Defamation League, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Conference. These groups have also called for a national conference on "pluralism." In a corporate effort to advance interracial understanding, the Levi Strauss Foundation is contributing more than $5 million to Project Change, designed to help communities reduce racial prejudice and promote harmony. It has programs in Knoxville, Tenn., Valdosta, Ga., Albuquerque and El Paso. And Levi-Strauss Chief Executive Officer Robert Haas is meeting with fellow CEOs and asking them to "step up to the plate" on race relations. On another front, the National Task Force on Violence Against Women, a coalition of over 1700 organizations, chaired by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund with the strong support of the National Organization for Women, has been instrumental in gaining national recognition of the problem of violence against women. This coalition helped pass the Violence Against Women Act and its groundbreaking civil rights remedy for gender-based hate crimes. Now, the coalition is monitoring federal support and implementation of the law. ---------- * Recommendations While much is being done to promote respect for diversity and to combat crimes based on bias, much more is needed. Federal, state, and local governments, educational, religious, community, and business organizations, and individual citizens all should assume even more responsibility to make sure that no individuals in our country are injured because of who they are. Here are some recommendations for action by every sector of society: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * 1) Exercise national leadership: National leaders from every sector of society - including government, business, labor, religion, and education - should use their prestige and influence to encourage efforts to promote tolerance and harmony and to combat bigotry. Although much progress toward reducing hate-crime violence and discrimination in American life has been achieved over the past 30 years, steps must be taken now to avoid losing ground. We strongly urge President Clinton to convene a White House conference in 1997 to focus on more effective ways of fighting ongoing discrimination, bigotry and intolerance, and to identify ways that all persons in this country, both citizens and immigrants, can live and work together in greater harmony. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * 2) Enforce existing laws: The nation must reprioritize the enforcement of federal and state civil rights laws. The recent revelations about pervasive discrimination and personal abuse against African-Americans at Texaco are another reminder that bias and bigotry are still part of American life. The fact that a tape leaked by a disgruntled former executive confirms earlier allegations by black employees is one more indication, if any were needed, that claims of discrimination should be thoroughly investigated, not casually dismissed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Unfortunately, discrimination in employment, housing, and even public accommodations is still prevalent, as evidenced by similar incidents at companies ranging from the national restaurant chain, Denny's, to real estate agencies throughout the country. In August 1996, the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. settled a law-suit filed by eleven Hispanic men, all U.S. citizens, who were forced by Wal-Mart store personnel to leave a Wal-Mart store in Amory, Mississippi, and informed that it was the store's policy not to serve Mexicans. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * Existing civil rights laws against all forms of discrimination are an important part of America's effort against bigotry, bias and hate crimes. These laws should be aggressively enforced. Moreover, significant increases in funding for all federal civil rights enforcement agencies is essential and should be included in the FY '98 budget. Offices such as the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the EEOC, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Fair Housing Enforcement Office, the Department of Agriculture's Office of Civil Rights are illustrative of those offices that need increased funding to address both the short and long-term problems associated with discrimination and with hate crime violence in the United States. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * 3) Renew America's commitment to vigorously combat hate crimes: Congress should renew the Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA) without a sunset provision, and expand its coverage to include gender. This will make an important statement that America will not tolerate hate crimes. It will also provide a continued mandate for law enforcement agencies at every level of government and communities and citizens all across the country to continue monitoring, preventing, prosecuting, and, in every way, combating hate crimes. In giving the HCSA a permanent mandate, Congress should provide more funding for training assistance and implementation. This will help all 16,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the nation participate in reporting hate crimes. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * a) Reauthorize U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Congress should reauthorize the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The Commission identifies, analyzes, and reports on the major civil and human rights problems confronting the nation; including the persistence of bigotry and discrimination, tensions among different groups, and hate crimes motivated by bigotry and influence. * Since 1990, the Commission has been especially effective, holding hearings on racial and ethnic tensions in major metropolitan areas and in the Mississippi-Delta region. It has also been vigilant in response to the church fires. In fact, the recent findings of the Commission have sparked a renewed discussion about the persistence of racism in American society. * b) Restore funding for Community Relations Service. Congress should also restore funding for the Community Relations Service (CRS) of the Department of Justice, whose budget has been cut in half after some members of Congress sought to eliminate it entirely. CRS works to resolve group conflicts and racial tensions in communities across the country. It offers mediation and technical assistance to communities trying to address hate motivated incidents. It is an invaluable resource that must be preserved and strengthened. * c) Improve data collection. For the HCSA, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Community Relations Service and other efforts against discrimination and intolerance to succeed, the nation needs accurate and * up-to-date demographic information about the racial, ethnic, and religious composition of the population. The need for federal data is essential to effective enforcement of civil rights laws. That is why it is so important that Congress allow the Census Bureau to take all available steps to reduce the persistent, disproportionate undercount of racial minorities and the poor in the 2000 census. With guidance from state and local officials and business and community leaders, the bureau has developed a plan to make sure that every person is counted, including those who historically have been hardest to reach. Congress should approve, not impede this plan, including census efforts at "sampling" residents in low-income communities. * 4) Expand coverage of federal criminal civil rights statutes: Federal criminal civil rights statutes should also be expanded to remove the requirement that victims be engaged in a federally protected activity at the time of the crime. Coverage of the law should be expanded to include gender, sexual orientation and immigration status. Law enforcement agencies should also consider identifying specific ethnic groups, such as Arab-Americans, who have been targets of hate violence. The coverage of state laws should also be expanded along these lines. Unless all hate-motivated incidents are identified, monitored, and documented, the full extent of the severity and prevalence of this violence cannot be adequately addressed. * Tougher hate crime laws should be enacted at both the state and local levels, including "penalty-enhancement" provisions that impose harsher punishments for criminal acts motivated by bigotry. While bigotry cannot be outlawed, if it leads to criminal conduct, that conduct can and should be punished. Hate crime statutes demonstrate an important community commitment to confront crimes prompted by prejudice. Police departments should be required to enforce these laws, and prosecutors should utilize them when appropriate. * 5) Create hate crime units: Local police departments should create hate crime units, with specially trained officers and outreach efforts to minority communities. These units are indispensable for preventing, investigating, and prosecuting hate crimes, for convincing potential offenders and potential victims alike that communities are committed to combating hate crimes. There should also be victim assistance programs for those who suffer from hate crimes. * 6) Encourage communities to participate: Congress and the Administration should encourage local law enforcement agencies to participate in the HCSA data collection effort. They can require that Department of Justice technical assistance grants be dependent on participation in the HCSA data collection effort. And they can also make such participation a requirement for receiving funds from the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). Additional federal funding should be included to cover the costs of local law enforcement participation. * Linking community policing to the effort against bias-related crimes can be especially effective. Hate violence can be addressed effectively through a combination of presence, prevention, and outreach to the community that is the hallmark of community policing. Congress and the Administration should see that new officers hired and trained under the COPS initiative begin to receive training in how to identify, report, and respond to hate violence. * Communities should also encourage efforts by businesses, labor unions, civic groups and concerned citizens. The response by communities, companies, civic organizations, and ordinary citizens to the arsons of African-American churches is a model for how America should answer hate crimes. Schools, businesses, * congregations, and communities all across America should initiate or intensify efforts to promote respect for diversity and to discourage acts of intolerance. The projects described in this report, as well as other efforts by the NAACP, National Council of La Raza, the Anti-Defamation League, and National Urban League, among others, are all models for what can and must be done. * 7) Debate the issues with reason, not rancor: In a democracy, there should be free and open debate about public issues. Political questions about immigration, abortion, affirmative action, and gay rights among others can and should be debated. But Americans of all backgrounds and viewpoints should find ways to debate these issues without demonizing one another. Public debate should be an appeal to reason, not an incitement to violence. * 8) Prepare the next generation of Americans for a diverse society: The disturbingly large number of young people who commit hate crimes underscores the need for educational programs on the importance of civic responsibility, cultural diversity, and a respect of cultural differences in the United States. As the Citizens" Commission on Civil Rights has urged, the federal government should promote democracy-building and citizenship initiatives - efforts such as teaching about the Bill of Rights and the parts that many different groups have played in our national history. The Department of Education should make information available about successful prejudice-reduction and hate crime prevention programs and resources. Local communities and school systems should offer programs on prejudice awareness, religious tolerance, conflict resolution, and multicultural education. * 9) Use the Internet to Educate: Like many persons in our society, we are increasingly concerned about the use of the Internet to promote doctrines espousing hatred and violence. We also appreciate, however, the importance of the First Amendment to our Constitution in protecting the speech of all in our pluralistic society. In that regard, the Internet is a marketplace of ideas and information - the public forum of the future. Moreover, the Internet has a growing utilization among young people, and therefore, must be considered in any serious public education campaign to address the problem of hate-related violence in America. * Recognizing the limitations of what government can or should do in addressing the problem of hate speech on the Internet, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund have proposed direct action. We will construct an Internet web-site devoted to civil rights and a greater understanding of the importance of civil rights laws in building the "more perfect union" which is our national promise. The LCCR/LCEF plan to develop what may be called "the definitive civil rights web-site," means that in addition to its own content, the new web-page will connect to the existing web-sites of LCCR members, thereby expanding its reach considerably. * 10) Comply with International Law: Racism in America, and hate crimes as tangible evidence of racism, has attracted the attention of the international community. In 1994, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance came on mission to the United States and last year filed an extensive report citing a "pattern of increased racist violence" in the U.S. The report concludes that "racism and racial discrimination persist in American society," despite the fact that "knowledge of the extent of racist violence in the United States continues to suffer from the lack of a uniform and accurate source of information." * In its periodic reports to the U.N. treaty monitoring bodies, the government should fully detail the extent of the hate crime problem in America - not just cite to laws on the books that criminalize hate crimes - and outline steps it is taking to eliminate the causes of hate crimes through increased enforcement, expansion of existing law, and educational programs. The U.S. should file its delinquent report on compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and should actively seek the participation of civil rights groups in the U.S. in the preparation of this report. * These recommendations themselves are intended as a starting-point for a national discussion on how Americans can not only prevent hate crimes but promote positive relationships among people of every heritage. In this effort, the sponsors of this study are eager to work together with other Americans of goodwill. ---------- Acknowledgments This report draws on the work of countless individuals and organizations involved in the effort to promote human rights and ease intergroup tensions. In particular, we would like to thank the following individuals for the information, insights, and other assistance they have provided to this project from start to finish: Karen Narasaki, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium; Michael Lieberman, Anti-Defamation League; Judy Appelbaum, National Women's Law Center; Patricia Ireland, Jan Erickson, Rosemary Dempsey, National Organization for Women; Pat Reuss, Pamela Coukos, Julie Goldscheid, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund; Leslie Wolfe, Center for Women's Policy Studies; Richard Foltin, American Jewish Committee; Charles Kamasaki, Carmen Joge, National Council of La Raza; Helen Gonzales, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Georgina Verdugo, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund; Marvin Wingfield, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; Rebecca Isaacs, People For the American Way; Beni Ivey, Center for Democratic Renewal; and MacCharles Jones, National Council of Churches. We would also like to thank David Kusnet, a visiting fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, who was the writer/consultant for the project and lived up to his reputation as a wordsmith of exemplary talents. Thanks go also to Victoria Van Son who provided research assistance. The staff of LCEF and LCCR are responsible for bringing this project to fruition and their hard work is deserving of applause: Karen McGill Lawson, executive director of LCEF, who provided overall supervision and coordination for the project; Wade J. Henderson, executive director of LCCR, who had the vision for the project and served as counsel and senior advisor; Brian Komar and Michael Gallant who provided research assistance; and Lisa Haywood, Charlotte Irving and Constance Dennard who assisted with editing and production. Finally, we would like to express our deep appreciation to the Levi Strauss Foundation for its financial support of this report. Throughout this report, we refer to these reports, among other sources of information: American Jewish Committee, What to Do When the Militia Comes to Town, By Ken Toole, November, 1995. American Jewish Committee, Skinheads: Who They Are and What to Do When They Come to Town, By Kenneth S. Stern, January, 1990. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 1995 Report on Anti-Arab Racism: Hate Crimes, Discrimination and Defamation of Arab Americans, 1996. Anti-Defamation League, Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents 1995, 1996. Center for Democratic Renewal, Black Church Burnings in the South: Six Month Preliminary Investigation, June 10, 1996. Center for Women Policy Studies, Violence Against Women as Bias Motivated Hate Crime: Defining the Issues, May, 1991. Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Hate Unleashed: Los Angeles in the Aftermath of 187, November, 1995. Klanwatch Intelligence Report, "Arsons at Black Churches on the Rise Across the South," May, 1996. Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, Hate Crime in Los Angeles County: A Report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 1996. National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, Anti-Asian Violence, a National Problem: Audit of Violence Against Asian Pacific Americans, 1995, June, 1996. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence, Anti-Lesbian and Gay Violence in 1995, 1996. U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Anti- Defamation League, Combating Hate Crimes in America's Cities: 1995, March 1996. U.S. Department of Justice, Hate Crimes Statistics 1994, and Hate Crimes Statistics 1995. Arnold Aronson, LCEF President Dorothy I. Height, LCCR Chairperson ---------- * Endnotes 1. For accounts of fires at Macedonia Baptist, Mount Zion AME, and other churches see: "Fires in the Night," By Tom Morgenthau, Newsweek, June 24, 1996, pages 28-32; "Who Is Torching the Churches?" By Gordon Witkin U.S. News and World Report, June 24, 1996, pages 30-32; "Arsons at Black Churches on the Rise Across the South," Klanwatch Intelligence Report, May, 1996, page 13 (here after cited as Klanwatch Intelligence Report); Center for Democratic Renewal, Church Burnings in the South (1996). 2.Joint statement of James E. Johnson, Assistant Secretary (Enforcement), Department of the Treasury, and Deval L. Patrick, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice, Co-chairs, National Church Arson Task Force, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, June 27, 1996. 3. For quote and statistics, see A Solid Investment: Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital, Recommendations of the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, Washington, D.C., November, 1995, especially page 9. 4. For events at Texaco, see: Julie Solomon, "Texaco's Troubles," Newsweek, November 25, 1996, pages 48-49, and Jack White, "Texaco's High-Octane Racism Problems," Time, November 25, 1996, pages 33 and 34. 5. See U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Bernardo M. Perez v. Federal Bureau of Investigation et al, June 10, 1988. 6. See Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Denver District Office, Statement of Findings and Recommended Decision in the Discrimination Complaint of Donald Rochon, June 26, 1987. 7. Center for Women Policy Studies, Violence Against Women as Bias-Motivated Hate Crime: Defining the Issues 12 (1991)(here after cited as CWPS Study); Northwest Women's Law Center, Gender Bias Crimes: A Legislative Resource Manual 12 (1994) (here after cited as Northwest WLC Study). 8. See Brian Levin, "A Dream Deferred: The Social and Legal Implications of Hate Crimes in the 1990s," Journal of Intergroup Relations, Fall 1993, p.9 (here after cited as Journal of Intergroup Relations). 9. National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, Audit of Violence Against Asian Pacific Americans, Second Annual Report (1994), p. 1. 10. Journal of Intergroup Relations, p. 10. 11. Ibid. 12. For statistics on Klan membership, see Journal of Intergroup Relations, p. 21. 13. Ibid., p. 22. 14. Nathaniel Sheppard, Jr., "Hate In CyberSpace," Emerge, Washington, D.C., July/August 1996, pp. 34-40 (hereafter cited as Hate in Cyberspace); Anti-Defamation League, The WEB of Hate: Extremists Exploit the Internet, (1996) (here after cited as WEB of Hate); National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, The Role of Telecommunications in Hate Crimes, (1993). 15. Hate in CyberSpace, p.36. 16. Testimony of Jerry Berman, Executive Director, Center for Democracy and Technology Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, May 11, 1995. 17 WEB of Hate; Kenneth S. Stern, A Force Upon the Plain, The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate, Simon and Schuster, New York, N.Y., 1996, page 107, (hereafter cited as A Force Upon the Plain. 18. For a history of the skinheads, see Kenneth S. Stern, Skinheads: Who They Are and What to Do When They Come to Town, The American Jewish Committee, January, 1990. 19. Anti-Defamation League, Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, 1995, New York, N.Y., p. 15 (hereafter cited as ADL Audit (1995)). 20. Anti-Defamation League, Beyond the Bombing: the Militia Menace Grows, (1995). 21. For O'Toole quote, see Kenneth S. Stern, A Force Upon the Plain: This book offers an outstanding report on the militia movements. 22. U.S. Dept. Of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey 3,4 (1995). 23. For a summary of Professor Lincoln's account of the history of violence against black churches, see "Burning Hate" by Salim Muwakkil, In These Times, July 8, 1996, page 15. 24. Statement of Deval Patrick, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Concerning Church Fires in the Southeast, May 21, 1996. 25. For an account of the history of attacks on St. John Baptist Church, see "Old Fears and New Hope: Tale of Burned Black Church Goes Far Beyond Arson," By Fox Butterfield, The New York Times, July 21, 1996, page 12. 26. For an account of this incident, see "Skinheads Get Prison for Bombings Plot" by Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1994, page B1. 27. See "The Great Church-Fire Hoax," The New York Post, July 29, 1996, page 20. Also, "A Church Arson Epidemic? It's Smoke and Mirrors," By Michael Fumiento, The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 1996, [page to come] 28. For comparative statistics on white and black churches, see "Why Are Churches Burning?" By Gary Fields and Richard Price, USA Today, June 28-30, 1996, pages 1A and 2A. 29. Ibid. 30. See, "Three White Soldiers Held in Slaying of Black Couple," by William Branigin and Dana Priest, Washington Post, Dec. 9, 1995, p. A1. 31. For accounts of racial harassment against Bridget Ward and her family, see: "Victim of Racist Graffiti Unbowed," By Suzette Parmley, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1996, page B5; "Racism is a Plague that Won't Go Away," By Claude Lewis, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 1996, page A19; "Bridesburg Residents Reflect on Racist Welcome," By Murray Dubin, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 1996, page B9; "Leaving Bridesburg and You Can Have It," By Lea Sitton, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 3, 1996, page A1. 32. For an account of this incident, see "Increase in Hate Crime Reports Has Fairfax on Guard," The Washington Post, July 14, 1994, page 4 of Virginia Metro Section. 33. L.A. County Commission on Human Relations, Hate Crimes in Los Angeles County in 1995, A Report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (1995), p. 32 (hereafter cited as Hate Crimes in Los Angeles County). 34. Klanwatch Intelligence Report, p. 16. 35. Ibid. 36.Ibid. 37. For statistics on anti-semitic incidents, see ADL Audit (1995), page 1 and throughout. 38. Ibid., p. 12 39. American Jewish Committee, Crown Heights, A Case Study in Anti- Semitism and Community Relations, New York, N.Y. (1991). 40. ADL Audit (1995), p. 14 41. See, "From a Quiet Beginning, a Volatile Brew Explodes in Harlem," by N.R. Kleinfield, New York Times, pp. 49, 51. 42. Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, Hate Crime in Los Angeles County in 1995. 43. See, "Proposition 187 Fans the Flames of Intolerance" by Thomas D. Elias, Houston Chronicle, Dec. 11, 1994. 44. U.S v. Adams & Page (D. Maine, 1995) 45. Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Hate Unleashed: Los Angeles in the Aftermath of 187, November 1995, p. 13. 46. Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, August 1994, page 1; "Mexican Laborers Beaten in Attack on Alpine Camp," Los Angeles Times, October 3, 1992, page 1. 47. See "California Deputies Taped in Beating," Washington Post, April 3, 1996." 48. Ibid. 49. For statistics on violence against Asian Pacific Americans, see Audit of Violence Against Asian Pacific Americans, 1995, Third Annual Report of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, Washington, D.C., June, 1996, page 1 and throughout. This report offers an excellent history of Asian Pacific Americans and of bigotry and violence against them. 50. Ibid., p. 9. 51. Ibid., p. 8. 52. Ibid., p. 31. 53. Ibid., p.32. 54. Ibid., p. 8. 55. For an analysis of bigotry against Arab-Americans, see 1995 Report on Anti-Arab Racism: Hate Crimes, Discrimination, and Defamation of Arab- Americans, American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, Washington, D.C., 1996. 56. Ibid., p. 2-3. It is important to note that not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs. 57. Ibid. 58. Ibid., p. 5. 59. Ibid., p. 7. 60. Council on American-Islamic Relations, A Rush To Judgment, The CAIR Report on Anti-Muslim Stereotyping, Harassment and Hate Crimes Following the Bombing of Oklahoma's Murrah Federal Building, April 19, 1995, p. 9. 61. For statistics on hate crimes against lesbians and gays, see Anti-Lesbian and Gay Violence in 1995, National Coalition of Anti- Violence Programs and Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence, 1996, page 1 and throughout. 62. Ibid., page 2. 63. Ibid., page 3. 64. Ibid., Appendix B-1-2. 65. Ibid., Appendix B-1-4. 66. Ibid. 67. Women and Violence: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 101st Congress, 2nd Session 62 (1990) (Statement of Helen R. Neuborne, Executive Director, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund). 68.P.L. 101-275 (1990); The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act includes gender-based crimes. 69. See e.g. 42 USC sec. 245; The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act includes gender- based crimes. 70. CWPS Study; Northwest WLC Study. 71. CWPS Study at 9; Northwest WLC Study at 10. The FBI uses these types of criteria to determine whether a crime was bias motivated. See, e.g. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines, pp. 2-3. 72. See Jenny Rivera, The Civil Rights Remedy of the Violence Against Women Act: Legislative History, Policy Implications and Litigation Strategy, 4 Brooklyn Law Journal 409, 412 (1996). 73. National Crime Victims Treatment Center, Rape in America 2 (1992). 74. U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey 3,4 (1995). 75. For figures from Arkansas, see CWPS Study, page 10. 76. Massachusetts v. Aboulaz, No. 940984H (Mass. Sup. Ct. Mar. 14, 1996). 77. Id. 78. Suzanne Pharr, "Hate Violence Against Women: A Long Killing Season," Violence Against Women (National Network of Women's Funds, Spring 1991). 79. Pub. L. No. 103-322, Title IV, codified at 42 U.S.C. 13701 et seq (1996). 80. 42 U.S.C. 13981 (1996) 81. ADL Report 1994 82. For survey on local prejudice reduction programs, see Combating Hate Crimes in America's Cities: 1995, Anti-Defamation League, March, 1996, pages 6-12. 83. For effort by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, see Statement of Karen McGill Lawson, Executive Director, Leadership Conference Education Fund, On Programs to Promote Tolerance and Understanding and Prevent Hate Crimes, Before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, March 19, 1996. 84. For an account of efforts to rebuild churches and improve intergroup relations, see "Goal Isn't Just to Rebuild But to Fight Hatred" by Richard Price and Gary Fields, USA Today, August 7, 1996, page 1A. 85. For report on the National Council of Churches, see "Goal Isn't Just to Rebuild, But to Fight Hatred," By Richard Price and Gary Fields, USA Today, August 7, 1996, page 2A. 86. Center for Democratic Renewal, Black Church Burnings in the South: Six Month Preliminary Investigation, June 10, 1996. ---------- End of Document