Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says hate crimes emphasize differences, not strengths, and divide American against American - and he wants Congress to renew a bill he helped pass five years ago to track such crimes.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., agreed in a hearing Tuesday that "America will not be America" until it is free from such prejudice.The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to consider a bill to permanently reauthorize the Hate Crime Statistics Act that Hatch helped pass in 1990.
It requires the Justice Department to collect data about crimes that show prejudice based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity.
Hatch, chairman of the committee said, "Such crimes bespeak a blind hatred which tears at the fabric of our society."