WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Kathy Castor hails the passage today of the Federal Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which will ensure that hate crimes based on sexual orientation will be treated the same way as hate crimes committed on the basis of race, religion and national origin.  In addition, under existing federal law, federal jurisdiction over hate crimes is limited to when victims are targeted because they are participating in federally protected activities, such as voting. Today’s bill, however, expands that to cover all violent crimes that cause or attempt to cause bodily injury or death.  The new law will be named for Matthew Shepard, a gay man killed in Wyoming 10 years ago in a high-profile crime.

The bill provides critical resources to state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

“Hate crimes are different from other types of crimes because the perpetrator targets the victim based upon physical or other personal attributes,” said Castor, an original co-sponsor of the bill. “And hate crimes target not just the individual victim but a whole segment of our community. We cannot tolerate these crimes in our community and law enforcement needs all necessary tools to bring perpetrators to justice.”

Perhaps owing to Tampa’s zero-tolerance policy, records in the Tampa Bay area show that all too often our neighbors have been victims of hate crimes, Castor said. Tampa leads the state of Florida in the number of reported hate crimes, according to the FBI. Tampa Police has a zero-tolerance policy on hate crimes, meaning all possible and borderline hate crimes are reported. According to the Florida Attorney General’s office, 193 hate crimes were committed in the state in 2007, including 103 based on race and 28 based on sexual orientation.

Recent hate crimes cases include a Polk County man stabbed to death because he was gay; and Pinellas County teens who were charged with spray-painting anti-Semitic and racial slurs on nine portable classrooms at Palm Harbor High School. The Islamic Education Center of Florida in Tampa was also set on fire.