Sikh American Community Encouraged to Contact Local Legislators to Support Important Bill Washington D.C. – March 21, 2007: The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the nation’s oldest Sikh American civil rights advocacy organization, today applauds Congress for taking the first step in passing a new piece of legislation aimed at protecting the nation’s communities from hate violence. Late yesterday, U.S. House of Representative Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), introduced H.R. 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime’s Prevention Act of 2007. The legislation, which has enjoyed bipartisan support from this Congress, and has 137 co-sponsors already, will provide assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies and amend federal law to facilitate with the investigation and prosecution of violent, bias-motivated crimes. “By introducing this legislation, the House has sent a clear message that hate crimes will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said SALDEF Managing Director Kavneet Singh. “Even before the flurry of post-9/11 hate crimes affecting the Sikh American and other communities, we were working with a broad coalition to pass this legislation. We applaud the House for introducing this important piece of legislation.” Bias crimes are increasingly a cause for concern specifically within the Sikh American community. The FBI Hate Crime Report, although voluntary, has documented over 115,000 hate crimes since 1991. In 2005, 7,183 hate crimes were reported, of which, 17.1 percent were perpetrated against individuals of faith and 14.2 percent against ethnic minorities. The legislation has a broad range of support of over 200 civil rights, advocacy and law enforcement organizations including: Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Anti-Defamation League, Human Rights Campaign, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, among many others. For more information about our work, visit www.saldef.org or contact us at 202-393-2700 or info@saldef.org
