The Harm of Hate Crimes: A Panel Discussion

Congresswoman Diane E. Watson Remarks

October 2, 2002

4:00 PM

Room HC-8, U.S. Capitol

Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming to this important discussion about hate crime. I especially want to thank Dr. Shari Miles and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) for sponsoring this briefing and all the panelists and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for participating.

As a former school psychologist, I understand the importance of bridging the gap between science and public policy. The SPSSI’s most recent issue of the Journal of Social Issues greatly aids in this effort and I commend them for their service to education.

The issue of hate crime is not a partisan Republican and Democrat issue. It is not a black, gay, or white issue. It is a human issue because hate crime affects all of us. These crimes tear away at our sense of safety and equality. Last year’s terrorist attacks demonstrated the shear destruction that can occur as a result of intolerance, ignorance and pure hate.

Some time this month, the FBI will release national hate crime statistics, and if national trends follow Los Angeles County, of which I represent a portion of Los Angeles and Culver City, they will be on the rise.

According to the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations, there were 1,031 hate crimes reported in 2001, an 11% increase over the previous year, and the largest number ever reported in L.A. County. The 11% increase is due in large part to the September 11th attacks. For example:

• In the month after 9/11, State Attorney General Bill Lockyer reported 236 hate incidents and crimes reported to six major law enforcement agencies statewide; almost half from L.A. County, which had the largest number of such incidents in the state.
• 91 anti-Middle Eastern hate crimes were reported in L.A. County in the 90 days following the 9/11 attacks, which was 700% more than during 2000. The number of hate crimes, and the 168 anti-Middle Eastern hate acts, which includes crimes and non-criminal acts of discrimination after 9/11, were the most seen by the L.A. County Commission in its 21 years of reporting such data.

For more information about hate crime in L.A. County, I encourage you to visit www.lahumanrelations.org.

Most recently, just last week, an assault on a gay man brought to four the number of suspected hate crimes in West Hollywood since September 2nd. The man was brutally beaten by a baseball bat and metal pipe and is in critical condition.

The clink of a metal pipe upon a skull and all other hate crimes in America are frontal assaults on every American’s freedom and pursuit of happiness. California and our federal government have done much to protect the American people from hate crime but more can and must be done.

For example, passage of H.R. 1343, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2001, would broaden hate crimes laws to cover offenses committed because of a victim’s gender, sexual orientation or disability and award grants to state and local programs designed to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would extend federal employment discrimination protections to sexual orientation. It is my hope that these bills will become law.

Educating our country, especially our children, about the social and psychological impact of hate crime will help prevent future crimes. It’s discussions like this and groups like the SPSSI that will help educate policymakers and the American people about the science behind hate. Thank you again for coming and your commitment to this issue.