Hilda L. Solis: “today I rise again to support the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2001, introduced by my good…”

“today I rise again to support the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2001, introduced by my good friend, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers). The act promotes a strict enforcement of hate crimes, providing Federal assistance to States and local jurisdictions to prosecute these cowardly crimes. In my own district, in the city of Azusa, we have experienced several hate crimes. In fact, in 1999, 11 hate crimes were reported, Latinos fighting with African Americans. Unfortunately, in this past year, Azusa has already experienced nine hate crimes alone, and those were the only ones that were reported. What about the ones that were not reported? Earlier this month, a Molotov cocktail was maliciously thrown at three different homes, African American families, and almost killed a young child. In one of these outrageous attacks, the bomb landed in the bedroom of a 6-year-old boy. We must stand to protect our children and communities from these hateful actions. I want to be able to tell the people in my district that here in Washington, D.C. we are doing something about hate crimes. We need to empower our law enforcement and give more support to combat hate crimes.”