The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Urges the U.S. Department of Justice and the Trump Administration to Increase Hate Crime Enforcement to Address White Nationalism
March 22, 2019
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, by majority vote, strongly urges the United States Department of Justice and the Trump Administration to increase hate crimes enforcement responsive to white nationalism and the violence motivated by hate targeted at people of color, faith, and newcomers to our country.
In the last few years, self-identified white nationalist extremists have sought out and killed people of faith in their houses of worship:
- The 2015 murders of 9 African American parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a predominantly African American church.
- The 2018 hate killings of two African American men in Lexington, Kentucky, after failing first to enter a historically black church.
- The 2018 killings of 11 members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prior to the killing, he expressed his hatred of Jews and migrants to America on various extremist websites.
The mass murder of 50 worshipers of Islam at the mosques in Christchurch was allegedly committed by a person with similar animus and virulent anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views. He allegedly posted live video feeds of his killing spree on social media that reached across the globe, including and especially within the United States.[1] Indeed, neo-Nazi sites based in our country were touting their enjoyment of the video and hailing the actions of the alleged shooter.[2]
White nationalism is not confined to the reign of terror and violence perpetuated by the
Ku Klux Klan[3], but is an active presence that now spans cities, states, nations, continents, and oceans, aided and abetted by the digital and wireless age in which we
- ↑ https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/14/asia/christchurch-mosque-shooting-intl/index.html
- ↑ https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/03/15/after-new-zealand-shooting-far-right-racists-claimvictimhood-hail-killer-hero
- ↑ https://www.usccr.gov/press/2017/Statement_08-18-2017_Charlottesville.pdf
https://www.usccr.gov/press/2018/11-02-Pittsburgh-Jeffersontown-PR.pdf
