Holder Pushes Hate Crime Bill in Wake of Recent Wave of Hate

In the wake the recent shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and continued attacks against immigrants, Attorney General Eric Holder has asked Congress for a tougher hate crimes bill.

"If there was ever a doubt about the need for this legislation, I think that has been pretty much done away with by the events that we've seen in our nation here in Washington, DC....I think the time is right, the time is now for the passage of this legislation," he said.

We couldn't agree more. The FBI reports that hate crimes against Latinos have risen 40% over the past four years. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that that the number of hate groups targeting Latinos and immigrants has increased by 54% since 2000.

These are not just statistics. People are being beaten to death simply because they are Latino. Luis Ramirez, a 25-year-old immigrant, was beaten to death in July of last year by a group of teenagers in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. One witness said that they told Ramirez's friends to get out of Shenandoah "or you're gonna to be laying effin next to him."

On November 8, 2008, in Suffolk County, New York, 37-year-old Marcelo Lucero was going to visit a friend to watch a movie when he was attacked and murdered by seven teenagers. Originally from Ecuador, he had lived in this country for 16 years. According to Suffolk County police, the defendants wanted to "beat up some Mexicans."

In December, two Ecuadorean brothers were assaulted by three men yelling anti-Latino slurs in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. One of the brothers, a business man who had lived in the U.S. for 10 years, died as a result of his injuries. The deceased, Jose Osvaldo Sucuzhanay, was the co-owner of a real estate agency in Bushwick and a native of Ecuador who had legally immigrated to the U.S.

Hate has always been present. But the recent spike in violence against immigrants is being fanned by the flames of the anger and hateful rhetoric being voiced in the debate over immigration. Words that used to be considered extreme have become mainstream and are parroted nightly by talk show hosts and elected officials alike.

Two weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee held "The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009" hearing. Hate crime legislation has been working its way through Congress for more than a decade. Given the hate-filled events of the last few months we can't afford to wait any longer.

Comments

[digeridoo2]

Before we start enacting new federal hate crimes bills, have we evaluated the efficacy of state hate crime laws?

[Richard Keefe]

The Ecuadoran brothers were attacked by black thugs who were not affiliated with any "hate group."

The reasons for the SPLC's alleged "50% rise in hate groups since 2000" are simple and few:

A. SPLC founder Morris Dees is the sole arbiter of what constitutes a "hate group" and his claims are not subject to any peer review or external oversight. Even the FBI doesn't track "hate groups" because there is no legal definition of that term.

B: The SPLC takes in tens of millions of dollars each year in donations by maintaining an ongoing fear campaign designed to scare the donors. Therefore, Mr. Dees instructs his PR Chief, Mark Potok, to bump the numbers up 4-6% a year, whether the groups exist or not. Over the course of 9 years of this padding, hitting 54% is no great feat.

On March 25, 2009, Mr. Potok stated that a “group” doesn’t even have to be a group to be counted. “Potok says inclusion on the list might come from a minor presence, such as a post office box.” http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/672197.htmll)

[Richard Keefe]

C: If you actually look at Mr. Potok's "Hate Map" for California, you will immediately notice that the first 14 "groups" on the list are not affiliated with any locale. They merely exist in Mr. Potok's mind, and serve to pad California's alleged total by 17%. In some states, such as WY, NM and ME, the number of unaffiliated, "phantom" groups is 100%.

In all, 127 of the SPLC's alleged 926 "hate groups” are homeless. http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jspp)

D: Last year, Mr. Potok was compensated with more than $143,000 donor dollars to produce his padded figures, up $5,000 donor dollars from the previous year. His boss, multimillionaire Morris Dees opted to give himself a $20,000 raise from the donor pot, bringing his annual compensation to more than $350,000. In addition, Mr. Dees charges $10,000 a pop in "speaking fees" that can quickly add up to additional hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Between the two of them, Messrs Dees and Potok were compensated just under half a million dollars last year. Every last dollar was donated.

This is the financial incentive for keeping the number of "hate groups" growing every year. See pages 11 and 40 of the SPLC's most recent IRS Form 990 http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static//SPLC990_2007.pdf)

[Richard Keefe]

E: The two pages mentioned above also identify the names of the SPLC's ten highest paid officers. Note the lack of blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Other than a couple of token unpaid advisers, none of the SPLC's top ten officers are minorities, unless you include women as such. I don't.

F. The Form 990 also indicates that the SPLC is sitting high atop an “Endowment Fund” of over $151 million donor dollars. The interest on this money alone is enough to fund the SPLC’s legal activities indefinitely, yet every month the call for more donations goes out like clockwork.

G. On July 6, 2009, Potok admitted that his "Intelligence Report," the keystone of all SPLC fund raising and the source of Potok's six-digit income, "...relies on media, citizen and law enforcement reports, and does not include original reporting by SLPC staff.” http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20090706//APC0101/907060452/1004&located=RSS)

This is how the "experts" track "hate"? Through a clipping service? And for this the top ten, all White officers of the SPLC receive six-digit compensation?

Sadly, there really is hate in the world, but regurgitation Mark Potok's PR fund raising propaganda is not the way to document it.

[vicenteduq]

Ms Janet Murguía :

Thanks for bringing to attention these horrible crimes. You can also add the killing of a 9 year old girl in Arizona, the pretty girl was Brisenia Flores and was much loved by schoolchildren and teachers at her elementary school. Her Father Raul was also killed during May of 2009.

She was killed by some leading Members of the Minutemen Defense of America. In fact Shawna Forde that plotted the Home Invasion and Assault was the Executive Director of that Organization.

Those Minutemen were exalted and presented as Heroes and Examples by Tom Tancredo and Mike Huckabee during their Presidential Campaigns.

It is necessary to remember constantly these excellent people that died so miserably at the hands of Terrorists and Cowards.

That is why I have a site RACIALITY.­COM where I try to keep count of these Horrible Racial Murders, those of Blacks, Asians, etc ... are also recorded. They are too many.

It is necessary to keep a Watch on the Minutemen, many actions of them have been Violent, Aggressive, Racist, etc ....

http://raciality.blogspot.com

Vicente Duque