Although few youths who commit these crimes belong to hate organizations, some are attracted to neo-Nazi skinhead gangs. These groups believe that a race war against the Jews and mud races is the only ultimate solution. Several educational programs, such as the Anti-Defamation League s A World of Difference, are attempting to reduce prejudice and hate in the schools. At the same time, lawmakers have been crafting statutes making certain kinds of hateful acts, like Ku Klux Klan-style cross burnings, illegal. Other statutes have increased penalties for crimes motivated by racial and others forms of prejudice.
Some people argue that even bigotry is protected by the First Amendment s guarantee of free speech.
Over the past decade, some states and cities have prohibited certain acts as hate crimes. About a year after St. Paul s hate-crime law was enacted, police arrested a group of white juveniles for a series of cross burnings. In one instance, the youths taped chair legs together into a crude cross and set it ablaze inside the fenced yard of a black family. In an appeal that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for the juvenile defendants argued that the St. Paul law violated the free-speech provision of the First Amendment. The city responded that by prohibiting such acts as cross burnings, the ordinance served a compelling governmental interest to protect the community against hate-motivated threats.