April 30, 2017

URGENT ALERT!

Tell Congress to Act! Pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Bill! Contact Your Representative Today.

“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality, and eats away its vital unity.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2017, H.R. 1592. This legislation would strengthen existing federal hate crime laws by authorizing the Department of Justice to assist local authorities with investigating and prosecuting certain bias-motivated crimes.

The bill would also provide authority for the federal government to prosecute violent bias-motivated crimes directed against individuals on the basis of their disability, gender or sexual orientation and it would provide money to states to develop hate crime prevention programs.

Currently, the federal government is allowed to intervene in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes in very limited cases. Under this legislation, state and local authorities would continue to investigate and prosecute the majority of hate crimes cases. However, federal authorities could pursue these cases when state and local authorities are unable or unwilling to act.

Violence on the basis of hate is widespread and affects not only the attacked, but the community at large. When one of us is assaulted for who we are as individuals, it’s a threat to our own humanity.

Please call your Representative this week and urge him or her to support passage of H.R. 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The number to the Capitol Switchboard is (202) 225-3121.

PLEASE SEND THIS ACTION ALERT TO YOUR COLLEAGUES, COMMUNITY LEADERS, AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BAR.

Kim Alton
Public Policy Counsel
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights
1401 New York Avenue, N.W.
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 662-8600
[email protected]

Action Alert Archives