A group of bipartisan Congressional lawmakers, joined by MTV News correspondent John Norris, convened a press conference at the Capitol Tuesday to kick off a campaign for what they call “real hate crimes legislation.”
“Hate crimes are a national disgrace — an attack on everything this country stands for,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who was joined by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and House of Representatives Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.). Kennedy’s office said the bill already has 51 other co-sponsors in the Senate as well as bipartisan support in the House of Representatives.
“For too long, the federal government has been forced to stand on the sidelines in the fight against these senseless acts of hate and violence,” Kennedy said. “The bill we are introducing today will change that by giving the Justice Department greater ability to investigate and prosecute these crimes, and to help the states do so as well.”
Hoping to provide visibility for the new measure, MTV collected 50,000 e-mails and signatures from young adults to be delivered to the White House in a show of support. Norris was accompanied at the news conference by the author of one of the e-mails received by the youth-driven network.
The new law, entitled the Local Law Enforcement Act, is an extended version of the old “hate crimes” bill that would punish perpetrators of bigotry-motivated crimes to include gender, disability and sexual orientation. Previously, the law only addressed crimes whose victims were targeted on the basis of race, religion and national origin.
“It expands the definition of what a hate crime is,” said William Keyser, a spokesman for Kennedy. “It provides inter-governmental assistance and it allows the federal government to provide both technical and financial resources to a local community in their investigation and prosecution of a hate crime.”
Keyser cited the October 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death because he was gay. Keyser said the federal government was slow in assisting the district attorney’s office given the gravity of the crime and the publicity that was generated.
“The local jurisdiction had to financially bankroll the entire prosecution of that very complicated and high profile case,” he said. “It was not possible for the FBI or the Department of Justice to provide financial resources to help with evidence gathering and with the prosecution of the crime as well as handling the enormous media attention focused on [the Wyoming community].”
“If something were to happen in a jurisdiction and local [law enforcement] decided not to fully prosecute the crime to the extent of the law that would be appropriate, there really is no means for the federal government to insure a full and fair prosecution,” Keyser said. “This bill would allow the government to make sure the perpetrator is held accountable.”
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