Matthew Shepard Act
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (LLEHCPA)/Matthew Shepard Act gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence by providing the DOJ with jurisdiction over crimes of violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
The Matthew Shepard Act would strengthen existing federal hate crime laws in three ways:
· provides the DOJ with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable to act, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of bias-motivated, violent crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
· The LLEHCPA also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers or assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias-motivated crimes.
· Eliminate a serious limitation on federal involvement under existing law which requires that a victim of a bias-motivated crime was attacked because he/she was engaged in a specified federally-protected activity such as voting, serving on a jury or attending school.
On Wednesday last week, the House of Representatives voted 249-175 to pass federal hate crimes legislation.
Now tell the Senate to follow the House’s lead! »
Two years ago, right-wing groups and George W. Bush’s veto threat blocked the Matthew Shepard Act, a bill that would outlaw hate crimes based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. But now that President Bush is out of office, the bill is back.
Yet as some of the arguments on Wednesday demonstrated, the right-wing is doing everything it can to undermine the bill. They’re telling lawmakers that this hate crimes law would subject pastors to criminal penalties for preaching the gospel, endanger Christianity and end free speech — even though the bill specifically protects speech, including sermons and only applies to violent action.
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