Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Coons, Hearing on Responses to the Increase in Religious Hate Crimes

Hearing

Senator Coons: Thank you, Senator Feinstein. I'd like to thank our terrific panel for your service, leadership, and your testimony here today. Dr. Singh, your individual testimony about both your experiences and your advocacy and work was deeply compelling. Chief, thank you for what you're doing in the leadership of your department and elsewhere. Ms. Gupta and Mr. Greenblatt, both in your current roles and your previous roles, you've been terrific and effective voices against hate and hate crimes. Let me see if I can get one question into each of you in the brief amount of time that I have.

As I said in my previous round of questioning, Delaware saw, as did so many other states, bomb threats against our Jewish Community Center back in February and March, I was encouraged that a broad range of Delawareans rallied at the JCC to stand up to such hate and to such threats and terrorism, and similarly when there were threats and inappropriate statements about Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim earlier in the year.

Mr. Greenblatt, if I might, you've talked about pushing back on the scourge of online hate; I was encouraged by your answers about that. I'm also concerned about threats that really target houses of worship. We've seen mosques targeted by arsonists and JCCs receiving bomb threats. What more should the government do, what more should this committee do to ensure that federal resources are available to support institutions that are seeing significant threats to their security?

Mr. Greenblatt: Let's start with making sure that local law enforcement is adequately trained to provide support for houses of worship and other faith-based centers be that JCCs or Islamic Centers, etc. It's critical that local law enforcement appreciate the complexity and sensitivity in ensuring that the congregants in these houses of worship have adequate protection. Secondly, I think, speaking up at the local level really matters as well. So, as I've heard about the stories and what happened in Delaware because we were tracking these JCCs, the fact that local elected officials stood up and spoke out in defense of the Jewish Community Center, I think was really vital in sending a signal. I know there has been some debate about some consideration of additional funds to harden the institutions themselves, we certainly appreciate that some would want additional resources. We have some concern about that, because of the fungibility of funds, the difficulty of tracking such dollars, the competition that can ensue at the local level, really muddying the church-state divide that we think investing in our law enforcement agencies to ensure they can provide adequate training and support for local faith-based communities is an appropriate response.

Senator Coons: Thank you, Mr. Greenblatt. Chief Johnson, if I might, what training and tools are currently available to make sure that we are able to train and support local law enforcement in understanding how to appropriately respond to threats against houses of worship and to make sure we are moving forward with bias-free policing. In my view, having well trained and well supported local law enforcement and having them, in particular, trained in how to respond against houses of worship and trained in how to respond to hate crimes and how to conduct bias-free policing makes it more likely that we will have more thorough reporting, more timely and appropriate investigation, and thus more effective prosecution. What's your view, Chief?

Chief Johnson: Yes, sir, thank you for the question, and I would agree that there are a variety of different avenues in which we can focus our training, much of the testimony today spoke about the partnership with the different agencies that are represented at the panel and how we have collaboratively worked on this topic, particularly with the model policy for IACP with ADL to make sure that the initial response and that the investigation is thorough and achieves the shared goal. I'll also take the opportunity to celebrate the funding and resources that comes through the Department of Justice COPS Office that helps us to provide focused and dedicated training materials and support for topics that are supportive of this, inclusive of procedural justice, bias-based policing, policing in minority and disenfranchised communities, and also addressing hate crimes, but I would close with--well, what I would argue is our highest need. Law enforcement is confronted with unprecedented challenges in terms of the variety of different topics, hate crimes being one, elevated violent crimes, the ability for bond and grand juries and prosecution and mental health, and all these different things touching law enforcement, which is bringing us in different directions. We need to pass a National Crime Commission and be able to have a holistic review of all of these different threats and issues confronting our communities, and be able to address it systematically from all different aspects, not just from the law enforcement perspective.

Senator Coons: I agree with you, Chief, and I appreciate your speaking up about the need for a law enforcement commission, and I also frankly think that we should sustain the COPS program and sustain investments that make it possible for state and local law enforcement from the academy through the whole career of service of law enforcement officers to get the sort of training and research with ADL and with other organizations that have terrific curriculum materials. My last question, Ms. Gupta, these issues really shouldn't be partisan. And you heard earlier that a hundred senators joined in sending a letter to the attorney general urging a prompt response, an effective response to the JCC bombing threats earlier this year. Are there Civil Rights Division initiatives that you hope to see continued that would be effective in combating hate crimes and promoting inclusiveness during this administration?

Ms. Gupta: Yes, thank you senator. There was, as I said before, enforcement obviously and robust enforcement of our hate crimes laws is vital, but it is insufficient to address and meet the needs right now. It is really incumbent on the Justice Department to continue very aggressive outreach with particularly vulnerable communities. When I was the head of the Civil Rights Division, we went all corners of the country to have interfaith conversations, to talk about the relationship between school bullying and hate crimes, and understand what some local solutions are and what local communities are doing. We invested in training--federal, state local law enforcement training--the Justice Department made that a priority, and I will say there was not a single local law enforcement agency that was not starved for specific training and they were terrific partners with the FBI, with the US Attorney's offices and specific hate crimes identification prove how you build trust. And those kinds of trainings are vitally important; they were also with community-based organizations, and this I just want to close with. It is really important, of course, that in order to have any effective enforcement, both for local law enforcement and for the Justice Department, there needs to be trust between the most vulnerable communities and these very important institutions. And, so, the ongoing work of ensuring trust that victims don't feel that they are chilled in reporting, that they don't trust police who were often the face of government in communities or the government themselves is vitally important. So that ongoing work that is a broader thing than just the hate crimes piece, there needs to be an ongoing investment in the kinds of programs that the Justice Department engages in to rebuild trust where it has been vitally eroded, but also to recognize that words and policies that come out of any government entity carry and can have their own impact on the ability for law enforcement to be able to address and prevent crime. It is a multifaceted effort, the prevention efforts out of the Justice Department are vitally important, and my hope is that they will continue very robustly.

Senator Coons: Thank you, Ms. Gupta. I look forward to working with you in your new role at LCCR, I look forward to continuing to work with IACP, and, in particular, want to thank the Anti-Defamation League, your resources and materials have been very helpful in Delaware as our local law enforcement has done improved training to be more conscious of these issues, and as we step up to try and advocate for and defend our Sikh community, our Muslim community, our Jewish community, everybody in our state who has need of the protection of the law enforcement to be able to worship freely and as our First Amendment protects.

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