Washington, DC
~ Thursday, June 29, 2017
Remarks as prepared for delivery
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you, Rachel [Brand] for the introduction. We are very pleased to finally have Rachel
on board as our Associate Attorney General.
She will be a strong champion of the Department’s work to advance and
defend the rule of law.
I also want to thank Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom
Wheeler and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Robert Moossy of our Civil Rights
Division for putting together this important summit. I am grateful to all of you for being here,
and for your help in addressing this problem.
The Trump Administration and the Department of Justice are
committed to reducing violent crime and making America safe. As you know, hate crimes are violent
crimes. No person should have to fear
being violently attacked because of who they are, what they believe, or how
they worship.
So I pledge to you:
As long as I am Attorney General, the Department of Justice will
continue to protect the civil rights of all Americans — and we will not
tolerate the targeting of any community in our country.
In February, I established a Department of Justice Task
Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety.
The Task Force will accomplish its work through five subcommittees,
including one specifically set forth to address hate crimes. I asked Tom Wheeler to serve as chairman of
the task force’s hate crimes subcommittee, which includes representatives from
our U.S. Attorney community, the DOJ Community Relations Service, the FBI, the
Community Oriented Policing Office, Office of Justice Programs, Office of
Victims of Crime, and the Criminal Division.
The subcommittee is seeking feedback from communities
through events like today’s summit. We
need to hear from you about what is happening in your communities.
I have also asked the subcommittee to explore ways to expand
and improve training for federal, state, and local prosecutors and
investigators on hate crimes; how we can work better with affected communities
and our state and local law enforcement partners; and how we can improve our
data collection on hate crimes. This
Department of Justice is taking action.
The Department has prosecuted a number of high-profile hate crimes cases
this year as we seek to bring criminals to justice.
In March, thanks to the outstanding and extensive work of
the FBI and our international partners, a suspect was found and arrested in
Israel for allegedly making threatening phone calls to Jewish community
centers, inflicting terror across the nation.
In April, we brought federal charges against him, and our investigation
into these acts as possible hate crimes continues. This Department will
continue lend its full support to law enforcement officers and communities so
we can fight crimes like these.
Just last week, we sought and a federal grand jury returned
an indictment against a man in Texas for burglary and arson of the Victoria
Islamic Center. He now faces up to 40
years in federal prison. Earlier this
month, a man in Tennessee was sentenced to over 19 years in prison for trying
to recruit people to help him burn down a mosque in a small town in New
York. Also this month, the Department
indicted a man from Kansas for shooting three men at a bar because he thought
they were of Persian origin. One of the
victims—a young Indian-American electrical engineer—was killed in the attack.
He was just 32 years old and had a promising life ahead of him.
We have and will continue to enforce hate crime laws
aggressively and appropriately where transgendered individuals are victims. Last month, Joshua Brandon Vallum was
sentenced to 49 years in prison for assaulting and murdering Mercedes
Williamson. This is the first case
prosecuted under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act involving the murder of a
transgender person.
I personally met with the Department’s senior leadership and
the Civil Rights Division to discuss a spate of murders around the country of
transgender individuals. I have
directed the Civil Rights Division to work with the United States Attorney’s
Offices and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify ways the Department
can support the state and local law enforcement authorities investigating these
incidents and to determine whether federal action would be appropriate.
I specifically directed that the files of these cases be
reviewed to ensure that there is no single person or group behind these murders
or to what extent hate crime motivation lies behind such murders. I receive regular updates on the status of
that review.
I understand that many of the prosecutors who worked on
these cases are here today. I want to
thank you for your hard work and dedication.
All of the cases I’ve talked about are critically important, and I am
proud of the work that the Department is doing to fight and deter such crime.
Last week, our Department also hosted a summit on crime
reduction and public safety that included a breakout session focused on hate
crimes. The state and local law
enforcement leaders at that session highlighted several areas where they
thought we could improve hate crimes enforcement — including having dedicated
state prosecutors for hate crimes, and model training on collection of evidence
in these cases.
The feedback we received last week, as well as the thoughts
you share today, will inform the subcommittee’s recommendations to the broader
task force as they report to me next month, and as they prepare their full
report due next January.
Finally, I have directed all our federal prosecutors to make
fighting violent crime a top priority — and you can be sure that this includes
hate crimes. We will demand and expect
results.
Under our Constitution and laws, this nation protects
freedom of conscience, religion, speech, petition and assembly among
others. Thomas Jefferson swore eternal
hostility over any domination of the mind of man. So let it be.
Let me close by thanking you all once again for coming to
this summit, and for your commitment to this cause. Hate crimes are not only violent attacks on
our fellow citizens; they are an attack
on our country’s most fundamental principles.
We have a duty to make sure that all Americans can live their lives
without fear.
I look forward to hearing about your feedback— and I am
proud to work with all of you to make our country safe. Thank you.
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