Photo: Barack Obama. Credit: Pete Souza/White House.
President Barack Obama marked the fifth anniversary of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act in a statement released Thursday.
“Since this law was passed, the FBI and Department of Justice have vigorously investigated and prosecuted dozens of hate crime cases nationwide, including attacks on minorities, gays and lesbians, and people with disabilities,” said Obama, who signed the bill into law on Oct. 28, 2009. “The number of individuals charged with hate crimes has increased significantly over the past five years. And state and local law enforcement officers and other community members have received training in how to recognize and address hate crimes. The law is working.”
The law enables the Department of Justice to prosecute crimes motivated by race, color, religion and national origin without having to show that the defendant was engaged in a federally protected activity. It also empowers the Justice Department to prosecute crimes committed because of a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, gender or disability as hate crimes.
According to a White House official, the White House hosted an event Thursday marking the 5th anniversary of the bill. The White House and Justice Department announced at the meeting an initiative coordinated by the White House Domestic Policy Council that will consist of quarterly meetings focusing on prevention of violent hate crimes and effective responses to such hate crimes. The initiative will include the Justice Department, FBI, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, State Department and Department of Health and Human Services.
Administration officials also announced at the event efforts to expand the use of incident based crime data, further training for state and local law enforcement and community leaders on hate crimes, a new series of Community Relations Service hate crimes forums and an anticipated memo from Attorney General Eric Holder to U.S. Attorneys offices across the country on combating hate crimes.
The event was attended by a number of administration officials, including Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Cecilia Munoz, Senior Advisor to the president, Valerie Jarrett, acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Vanita Gupta, FBI Director James Comey, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. Judy and Dennis Shepard also attended.
In the past five fiscal years from 2009 to 2014, the Justice Department has charged 174 defendants on federal hate crimes or hate crimes-related charges — an increase of 23 percent from the prior five fiscal years, according to a White House official.
“Our job isn’t done,” Obama continued. “We must continue to stand together against intolerance and hate wherever they occur, and respond decisively when they lead to violence. Ours is a country built on the notion that all people are created equal. It’s up to us to make that ideal real, in our words and deeds as well as in our laws – to ensure that, in America, everyone is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve, no matter who they are or who they love.”
Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, is reportedly undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Collins made headlines more than a decade ago when he came out publicly in a first-person essay for Sports Illustrated.
The 41-year-old former center earned All-American honors at Stanford before being drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2001. Over his 13-year career, he played for several NBA teams, including the New Jersey Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets.
Back in May, just after our 31st anniversary, I asked readers which of four classic cover interviews from our early years they'd like to see in print again: Greg Louganis (March 9, 1995), Sir Ian McKellen (Jan. 25, 1996), Camille Paglia (Feb. 1, 1996), or Eartha Kitt (Nov. 14, 1996). None of these conversations exist online, and they haven't been seen since their original print dates.
Out of more than 200 responses, 8% chose Paglia, 27% picked Louganis, 29% went for McKellen, and an impressive 36% cast their vote for Kitt.
Kitt, who passed away in December 2008, seemed a fitting choice to revisit. A pop culture icon for her turn as the second Catwoman (following Julie Newmar) on the late-1960s, camp-classic TV series Batman, she was slated to appear at Washington's legendary jazz nightclub Blues Alley when we spoke.
Police in Paris, France, have arrested a homeless Tunisian migrant accused of killing four men whose bodies were later found in the Seine River. The case began on August 13, when a commuter spotted a corpse floating in the river. Investigators subsequently recovered three more bodies from the same stretch of water.
Autopsies confirmed all four victims were men. At least two had been strangled, though forensic experts could not determine the exact cause of death for the others, according to The Times. Police are investigating the four deaths as homicides.
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