The Congress Expands Hate Crime Protection

United States is a very violent country. The American Government textbook shows on page 90, the firearms death rates in this country compared to other countries. I knew that the number would be high, but it honestly shocked me, when not only do we have the highest incidents, but the second highest was only half of the total that we carry.


Hate crimes law were ordained after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King JR. in 1968. This law is centered on crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin. The Congress has now approved an expansion of civil rights based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability,and President Barack Obama signed this federal law last month.


Those against the expansion are concerned that it will create a special class of victims. However, what were to happened, to these people who are exposed sometimes on a daily basis to discrimination based on what they look like or how they live their lives. If the protection does not come from the law ,then these hate crimes will continue increasing. The federal government is now able to give resources and assistance to the communities dealing with these kinds of crimes. According to an FBI report dated for 2008, there is an 11 percent increase on hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation. Among all the categories of hate crimes, about 30 percent involve intimidation of some kind and another 30 percent were physical attacks. The FBI reports show that half of the hate crimes are motivated by race, one out of every six is based on sexual orientation bias, and one out of every five is led by religious bias.


Regardless of what anybody's ethnic, cultural or religious background is, when someone is led by any reason to foment and show hatred and violence towards someone else only because they are different, he or she should be accountable with the law. I hope that this expansion of the civil rights will stop the discrimination that prevails in a country, which is also know for its democracy and equality. Hatred and violence does not resolve the issue, it only teaches the younger generations that it is okay to think that one person is better that another. Just like a human being does not have the legal right to own another human being, no one has the right to take someone else's life due to discrimination.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/10/23/senate-votes_to_expand_hate_crimes

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/Other_us_Government/US_Hate_Crimes