NOVEMBER 21, 1997 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 9

President convenes national conference on hate crimes

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The legislation would also remove judicial requirements that make it more difficult to prosecute racially-motivated hate crimes under existing federal civil rights laws.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, supports the bill, but said she believes it will be difficult to push it through the current Congress.

"It only takes one stone in a liquid to sink to the bottom and drag the others down," she said. "There will be those who will try to drag this debate in other directions."

The conference was attended by nearly 500 people invited by the White House. Attorney General Janet Reno introduced members of the panel individually, who shared stories about hate crimes they have personally endured, and reports from the field. During the conference, the president con-

HATES FAGS signs, plus one reading GOD'S HATE IS NO CRIME carried by Phelps' daughter

tinued his theme of getting tough on hate crimes, which he began last June. "[Hate crimes] are acts of violence against Margie. America itself," Clinton said.

The president recalled “too many stories of violence," including one in which a gay man was murdered as he walked home from work.

Clinton then outlined his plan for combating hate crimes.

"The first thing we need to do is make sure our nation's laws fully protect all its citizens," he said. "Our laws already punish some crimes committed against people on the basis of race, religion, and national origin, but we should make our laws include all hate crimes that cause physical harm. We must prohibit crimes committed because of the victim's sexual orientation, gender, or disability."

Fred Phelps and his followers picketed outside the conference with their trademark GOD

"I never thought I'd see the day when a hate crimes conference was picketed,” said one surprised George Washington University student, shaking her head.

Sharen Shaw Johnson of Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence and Jeffrey Montgomery of the National Coalition of AntiViolence Programs were pleased with the work of the conference. But they cautioned participants not to become complacent about the Kennedy-Specter egislation before the final bill is signed.

"We need to hod everyone to the inclusive rhetoric we heard today," Montgomery said.

Rep. Jacksonadded, "Today the president used his voice to put on the national radar screen many issues. The debate will now begin."

GOD'S HATE IS NO CRIME

ERIC RESNICK

GOSPEL FACS PREACHING DOOK IS NO CRIME

The Phelps family picketed outside.

Community leaders fear bar raids had anti-gay motivation

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said police took individual Polaroid photographs of everyone present.

McCauley received one report of an officer "making some comments about faggots," but most did not hear anti-gay remarks from the police.

Cozad described the action as a major public relations problem. She said that there is a perception that gay establishments were unfairly targeted.

"It's dart league night, and it's mostly mature white professional men, and they're playing darts. They managed not to find anyone incidentally with drugs on them, and this is the result of a nine month investigation?" said Cozad. "They're going to bust the little neighborhood bars at 8:00 on a Wednesday night— which brings the question of whether they really were looking for drugs."

Hawkins responded by saying that police were simply enforcing the law. But he would not state clearly whether anyone was arrested who was not already under a warrant.

"If you're not violating the law, you have nothing to be worried about from us," said Hawkins.

"What about the 40 or 50 people that were in those bars that weren't breaking the law?" asked Cozad. "They weren't fine. They were handcuffed and thrown to the floor."

"Wedidn'tsearch everybody in all these bars," Hawkins said. "We don't have that right."

McCauley disagreed. "In three of the establishments, everyone was searched. In two it was a complete take-down: everyone with hands restrained, employees, customers."

Cozad said that the Columbus police liaison to the gay community was not alerted about the raids, but local TV stations were.

"They called the mainstream press and told

them about the raid and that there was a nice parking lot across the street where they could stage their cameras," said Cozad. Some stations featured the gay bar raids on the evening news that night.

BRAVO has held several meetings between community leaders, attorneys, city officials and bar owners to discuss concerns about how the raids were handled. The group has also made fliers to distribute in the bars, explaining what happened and listing contact numbers for resources and for more information.

Leaders will update community members about the ongoing discussions at 2 pm on Sunday, November 23 at the Stonewall Center.

"Nobody's condoning drugs in the bars,” said Stonewall office manager Kim Dill, who attended one of the earlier meetings, "but we're questioning how the raids happened."

BRAVO and Stonewall have had an ongoing relationship with the Columbus police

department. Detective Wes Johnson has been the police liaison to the lesbian and gay community for nine years. Johnson said he meets weekly with Stonewall and BRAVO.

"We have a lot of positive things that have gone on between Stonewall and the Columbus police," said Johnson. “I think that will continue. I really do."

Statistics show that the Columbus gay community has gained confidence in the police. In 1991, less than 10% of the Columbus anti-gay hate crime victims that reported incidents to anti-violence groups also reported them to the police. By 1996, that rate reached over 25%. "I have put many years into the task of improving communication between the community and the police. We were seeing success in that," said McCauley.

"This has set us back a dozen years or more. How can I convince people that they can report crimes to the police?

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