It is incomprehensible that, given the thousands of hate crime incidents that are occurring in this country, the GOP leadership would steadfastly refuse to lead our nation into extending moral outrage to crimes committed because of the victim's gender, sexual orientation or disability. The National Urban League finds this abdication of leadership unacceptable and deeply disappointing. The 106th Congress cannot go home without enacting hate crimes prevention legislation that was overwhelmingly supported in both houses.
Hate crimes do more than injure an individual.
They harm the psychological well-being of an entire group. These crimes threaten the very fabric of the country because they strike at the core of the American ideal of making one nation out of many different people. The federal government must lend local law enforcement all the support they need to respond to these nationally important cases. The hate crimes bill that was zeroed out of the DoD bill would give prosecutors an additional set of tools to reinforce society's moral response to crime and allow the full commitment of federal resources to assist local authorities in solving hate-motivated crimes. The legislation would remove overly restrictive obstacles to federal involvement, and extend coverage to victims because of their gender, sexual orientation or disability.