At Site of Attack, First Lady Urges Curbs on Guns, Hate Crimes

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the North Valley Jewish Community Center on Friday to praise, to soothe and to drum up support for tougher gun control and hate crimes laws.

Speaking in the same Granada Hills center where five people, three of them young children, were wounded during an allegedly hate-inspired attack in August, Clinton said the country could learn a lot from the families of the shooting victims.

She especially applauded the family of Joseph Ileto, the 39-year-old postal worker who was shot to death in Chatsworth, allegedly by the same man who attacked the community center.

Locking her eyes on Ileto’s brother, Clinton said: “I hope the message of courage of this family and this center will serve as a hallmark, a beacon, a guiding light of how to navigate the years to come and how we can all stand up for dignity.”

The first lady also stressed the need for tougher gun control and hate crime laws, measures the Clinton administration is pushing despite Republican resistance.

“Only members of Congress can keep guns out of the hands of those who would be violent and protect those who would be victims of hate crimes,” Clinton said.

Her two-hour visit became a reunion of sorts for the victims of the Aug. 10 attack and their families, many of whom had not seen one another since the days after the shooting.

There was 6-year-old Ben Kadish getting wheeled down the same hallway where he almost lost his life, his father’s hands firmly on the back of his wheelchair.

Mindy Finkelstein, a 16-year-old camp counselor, and Joshua Stepakoff, a 6-year-old camper, got to meet the first lady before her speech and hear her read from a book.

The three children, along with another boy and the center’s receptionist, were allegedly shot by Buford O. Furrow, an avowed racist from Olympia, Wash. Furrow burst into the community center entryway spraying bullets because he hated Jews, police said.

After he left the center, he shot and killed Ileto while the Filipino American was delivering mail, police said.

Furrow is facing federal murder and gun charges and probably state attempted murder charges.

The most vocal of the victims and their families was Ismael Ileto, brother of the slain mailman, who used Clinton’s visit as an opportunity to promote his own campaign for tougher hate crime laws.

He has formed a group named after the letters of his brother’s name: Join Our Struggle to Educate and Prevent Hate and Instill Love, Equality and Tolerance for Others. He speaks at schools and community events.

“I don’t want my brother to have died for nothing,” he said. “That’s why I’m working for stronger laws.”

The White House is backing a measure that would expand the groups protected under federal hate crime laws and make it easier for federal authorities to investigate hate crimes. Currently, federal law enhances penalties for crimes committed against people based on their race, religion or ethnicity. The proposed legislation would also cover violence based on sexual orientation, gender and disability.

This summer the Senate passed the proposed Hate Crimes Prevention Act. But during House-Senate budget negotiations, Republican leaders cut the measure out, saying existing state laws made it redundant.

Last week, Clinton vetoed the Justice Department spending bill, citing the absence of expanded hate crime legislation. The administration is negotiating with congressional leaders over the hate crime measure and tougher gun control laws that would require trigger locks and prevent juveniles from purchasing arms.

The first lady said Friday that law enforcement needs more tools to fight hate groups.

“We need to make it easier to prosecute these people,” she said. “We can’t permit the virus of hate crimes to infect our society.”