Lynn C. Woolsey: “Tomorrow is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. What better way to honor…”

“Tomorrow is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. What better way to honor this day than to act upon legislation that will help law enforcement investigate and prevent crimes based on discrimination? That is why I ask my colleagues to join me to encourage the Republican leadership to bring the gentleman from Michigan's (Mr. Conyers) bill, H.R. 1343, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to the House floor. Hate crimes have been a persistent problem in the United States. The FBI recently released its hate crimes statistics of 2000. Sadly the report indicated that bias-motivated crimes continue to increase. During the year 2000, law enforcement reported 8,063 bias-motivated criminal incidents, indicating a 3.5 percent increase since 1999. In this report, crimes based on race ranked number one, while crimes based on religion and sexual orientation ranked second and third. The most disturbing part of this report is what it does not show. The official numbers barely scratch the surface of the hate crime problem across the country. The true number of hate crimes actually committed last year could top 50,000 according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.”