The San Fernando Valley, which includes portions of Sherman s 24 th District was struck by the destructive combination of hate and firearms when white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. fired upon children at the North Valley Jewish Community Center and then shot and killed Filipino American lettercarrier Joseph Ileto.
Hate crimes send shockwaves through our communities, cultivating fear and intolerance.
Sherman is an original cosponsor of the hate crimes legislation announced today by the two ranking Judiciary members, Representative John Conyers and Senator Edward Kennedy. Congressman Sherman co-sponsored similar legislation in the 106 th Congress which, despite overwhelming bipartisan support in the House and Senate, was blocked by the Republican leadership. Approximately 50,000 hate crimes have been reported over the last five years, with nearly 8,000 reported last year. Current law limits federal jurisdiction to federally protected activities, such as voting, but does not permit federal involvement in a range of cases involving crimes motivated by bias against the victim s race, sexual orientation, gender or disability. This loophole is particularly significant given that 10 states have no hate crime laws on the books and another 21 states have extremely weak hate crime laws.