Bill Requiring Reporting of ‘Hate Crimes’ OKd

Congress gave final approval Wednesday to legislation that for the first time would require the Justice Department to report the rising number of “hate crimes” against racial or religious minorities, homosexuals and other victims of prejudice.

The House voted, 402 to 18, for a Senate-passed bill that calls for the compilation of federal statistics on criminal acts--including murder, assault, robbery and burglary--that stem from bias based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

Opponents, including Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), said they objected to the legislation because it would put homosexuality on a par with race, religion and ethnicity as areas traditionally covered by civil rights laws.

President Bush, who supported the measure, is expected to sign it into law and assure the publication of “hate crimes” as part of the annual Uniform Crime Reports for the next five years.

The measure specifies, however, that the identity of crime victims must not be disclosed and restricts the use of the data for research purposes.

Sponsors of the bill said it would provide the basis for Congress to act later on legislation to curb outbreaks of anti-Semitism, gay-bashing and racially motivated attacks that are now not tabulated separately by police or prosecutors.

“We can’t take the most effective action against hate crimes until we know more about them,” said Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), author of the Senate bill. “Now we’ll begin to learn the level of poison in our system.”

Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N. Y.), chief House sponsor of the legislation, added in a statement that “reliable nationwide figures on these atrocities will isolate hate crimes and make their prosecution easier to achieve.” The bill would provide the public and law enforcement agencies with the first reliable national information on hate-based crime as a separate category of offenses.

Under current practice, crimes rooted in prejudice are lumped together with other murders, assaults, arson or incidents of vandalism.

“Hate crimes run the gamut from vandalism to package bombings,” Simon noted, referring to bombs sent through the mail recently that killed a federal judge and a civil rights attorney in the South.

The bill was backed by a broad cross-section of religious, labor and civil rights groups as well as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. In the Senate, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) pushed through an amendment that remained in the final version of the bill that would bar the use of funds to promote or encourage homosexuality.