Andrea Joy Campbell: “If one needs a reminder as to why we must make the Hate Crime Statistics Act mandate permanent, one need look no further…”

“If one needs a reminder as to why we must make the Hate Crime Statistics Act mandate permanent, one need look no further than today's headlines. Throughout the South, Federal and State authorities are investigating a rash of arson against African-American churches reminiscent of the violence perpetrated three decades earlier. In California, a native American was brutally stabbed by skinheads. My home State of Colorado has not been immune from the scourge of hate violence. In Morrison, CO, a swastika was burned on a woman's lawn. While in Aurora, a man shot his neighbor with a BB gun because of hatred for his Asian neighbor. In 1995, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Klanwatch Project counted 267 active hate groups in the United States including 6 in Colorado. And, in 1994, because of the passage of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, law enforcement agencies in the United States were able to identify 5,852 hate crimes. Hate crimes are a growing problem--one that cannot merely be measured by numbers alone. If we are going to be successful in our battle against the scourge of violent hate crime, one thing is certain--we must have hard, reliable, information about the nature and the scope of the problem. Mr. President, this bill calls for a permanent mandate for the collection of hate crime data by the Justice Department.”