From: Patricia Ireland, Kim Gandy, Karen Johnson & Elizabeth Toledo
Subject: Hate Crimes Update
Date: October 16, 1997
That statute, Title 18, Section 245 of the U.S. Criminal Code, allows the government to investigate and prosecute crimes motivated by hate based on race, religion and ethnicity. We have urged expansion, but are continuing to encounter resistance to including violence motivated by the victim's sex. It appears that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) does not want the task of tracking or investigating such crimes. There have been attempts to create divisions among progressive allies by suggesting that if sex-based hate crimes are included, there will not be ample resources to properly investigate race-based and sexual orientation-based hate crimes.
We need your help. NOW and other advocates for lesbians and gays and people with disabilities have been very successful in our efforts to include those groups. It is important for NOW activists across the country to take immediate action to press for the inclusion of sex-based hate crimes in the federal hate crimes statute. Without our actions, hate crimes based on misogyny may well be left out of the statute -- which would be a setback in our efforts to stop violence against women.
There are several ways that chapter or state activists can contribute to this effort:
1) Generate calls, letters and e-mail messages to President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno asking them to support adding sex-based crimes to the federal hate crimes statute. (Please see the contact information.)
2) Send us anecdotal evidence of the most extreme examples of sex-based hate crimes in your community. We are looking for examples of unusually violent rapes or murders perpetrated against women, particularly where they are accompanied by hate language against women. Also, let us know about incidents of women who have been attacked by serial rapists or serial murderers. If available, please include information on the economic impact of such crimes. (For instance, the increased cost for the government to provide benefits such as welfare, social security, disability, unemployment and government-provided health care and any evidence that interstate commerce, travel or employment are impacted.)
3) Send us samples of local or state hate crimes statutes that include sex-based hate violence against women. We are collecting examples of laws that have worked throughout the country. We are also looking for model programs and information on how local and state hate crimes laws are enforced.
4) Organize a White House Hate Crimes Conference down-link site in your community. The easiest -- and cheapest -- way to do this is to work with a campus which has down-link capacity and meeting facilities. Approximately two hours of the conference will be down-linked around 1 pm eastern time -- including speeches by Janet Reno and Bill Clinton. Your chapter -- or an anti-violence coalition in your community -- could use the conference down-link as an opportunity to raise public awareness about hate crimes. (If you are interested in the satellite down-link, contact Barbara Hays in the Action Center at extension 710.)
Please use the following addresses and phone numbers to reach President
Clinton and Attorney General Reno:
| President Bill Clinton (202-456-1111)
White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,N.W. Washington, DC 20500 president@whitehouse.gov |
Attorney General Janet Reno (202-514-2001)
Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20530 web@usdoj.gov |