ADVOCACY NEWS: ACA Celebrates Progress in the Campaign for Hate Crimes Protections for People with Disabilities


Home

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HR 1913/S 909) has been added to the Department of Defense Authorization bill.  This legislation has been a focus of many organizations for quite some time.  While there will be several amendments offered in the Senate debate on Monday, July 20th there are no other procedural obstacles and there will not be another vote on adding the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This all but assures that this important legislation will finally pass through Congress.  

 

The Amputee Coalition of America (ACA) signed on in support of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HR 1913/S 909) recognizing that bias against people with disabilities takes many forms, including violence.  

 

This bill will broaden the definition of hate crimes to include disability, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity.  It will grant agencies the authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes based on the victim’s disability, whether real or perceived, and would authorize funding to states to help with the prosecution of Hate Crimes.  It also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias-motivated crimes.

 

For more information on this issue, read “ACA Works to Advance Protections for People with Disabilities”. 

Powered By Traffic Booster Absolute News Manager Plug-in by Xigla Software

This article has been moved here