The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez announced Nov. 10 that hate crimes are increasing in the United States, many involving “remarkably senseless violence.”
Speaking before the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia’s annual Equal Justice Awards ceremony, Perez stated: “Regrettably our business is booming … because there is an undeniable headwind of intolerance around the nation. We prosecuted more hate crimes in the past year than we have in the past decade.”
Perez then noted some of these cases. For example, a Mexican national was beaten to death by teenagers who did not want Mexicans living in their Pennsylvania neighborhood. Another case involved arson at a mosque in Columbia, Tenn. An unrelated case involved a Murfreesboro, Tenn., mosque. The town contended that Islam is not a religion in order to deny the mosque a building permit to expand.
Racism hurts all workers because it divides our class.
