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WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today joined a bipartisan coalition in reintroducing legislation to strengthen the ability of the federal, state, and local governments to investigate and prosecute hate crimes based on race, ethnic background, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.
"Laws alone cannot turn bigotry and hatred into love and understanding," Lieberman said. "But they can make clear to all Americans, and especially our children, that we respect people in all their diversity and will not stand by while people are targeted because of who they are."
The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (LLEEA), also sponsored by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Gordon Smith (R-OR) and others strengthens state and local efforts by enabling the Justice Department to assist them in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. It also provides grants to help state and local governments meet the extraordinary expenses involved in hate crime cases. The LLEEA was approved the Senate Judiciary Committee last June, but did not pass the Senate.
Lieberman's full statement is below.
This bill says something pure and powerful: every American deserves full protection under the law. When any one of us is victimized simply on the basis of our race, gender, disability, national origin, or sexual orientation, it's an assault on us all and an attack on our common ideals. It's no mistake that America is at once the most diverse and the strongest nation in the world. Diversity leads to tolerance. Tolerance, to respect. And respect, to cooperation and community.
Affording all our people equal rights, opportunities, and responsibilities is, as President Kennedy once said, as old as the scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution. It is also, I would add, as urgent as the times in which we live. The tyrants and terrorists we fight overseas seek to kill those who look or worship differently. America must show a better way-both abroad and at home.
Those who oppose this bill have it wrong. Some say that every crime is a hate crime. Not true: motive matters. An attack fueled by bigotry does harm far beyond its victim. It tears our very moral fabric. Some say that with this bill, we will be turning every hate crime into a federal case. Wrong again. Drafters of the bill have carefully crafted it to ensure that where crimes can be handled at the state or local level, they will be.
Finally, some oppose this bill simply because it includes protections for gays and lesbians. Apparently in the eyes of some, not all group hate is created equal in America.
Laws alone cannot turn bigotry and hatred into love and understanding. But they can make clear to all Americans, and especially our children, that we respect people in all their diversity and will not stand by while people are targeted because of who they are.
In July 1964, upon signing the Civil Rights Act, President Johnson said, "Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our Nation whole. Let us hasten that day when our unmeasured strength and our unbounded spirit will be free to do the great works ordained for this Nation by the just and wise God who is the Father of us all." In that spirit, this bill will help make our nation whole for all Americans.
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