EUROPEAN/AMERICAN ISSUES FORUM CW Kuhn, Secretary - C.W. Johns, Treasurer, - F.P. Williams, Sgt at Arms - Louis Calabro, President -Clarice Gault, Vice President September 16, 1999 Government’s Hate Crimes Witch Hunt for European Americans The recent Government sponsored Western Regional Hate Crimes Symposium and Training held in Sacramento this month for police officers and Deputy District Attorneys, is a terrible example of good government intentions turning into a literal witch hunt to track, arrest and prosecute European Americans for racially motivated hate crimes; while ignoring other racial/ethnic group perpetrators. The process: compile INDICATORS that primarily relate to “white” hate crime perpetrators and train police officers and Deputy District Attorney to be alert to those indicators. An indicator is simply criteria that is used to determine if a criminal act was motivated by race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. As an example, one indicator that is common is that when a hate crime is committed by “whites” [often times an assault] the physical attack is accompanied with a verbal assault---”you no good [slur]” or similar words. “White” perpetrators often openly express their hatred and animus toward their intended victim, and those words are used as a motive and criteria for determining if a hate crime has been committed. “Whites” will often times confess to their racial, ethnic religious animus toward the victim and that they committed the crime. That is NOT true when another racial group commits hate crimes against “whites” and others. That groups perpetrators often remain silent about any racial animus toward the victim when committing a crime [whether an assault or robbery] and they seldom confess. They believe that “whites” and others are the oppressors and they are the oppressed, not capable of being racist and therefore no need to confess. They are also more familiar with the criminal process and how to “act” around police and victims. So, if we only train police officers and Deputy District Attorney’s about the indicators more common to “white” perpetrators and neglect to teach about the other group Indicators, their primary focus will be on tracking, arresting and prosecuting European Americans and the neglect of other racial/ethnic perpetrators. That is exactly what our government and its supporters accomplished at the Western Regional Hate Crimes Symposium in Sacramento. Keynote Speaker was U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Luncheon Speaker-Governor Gray Davis and Dinner Speaker-California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Where do we go from here? Louis Calabro attended the Symposium. LC:atc