Baltimore County Police Hate Crimes Seminar
at Goucher College
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
9 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to participate in this important and timely forum.
Diversity is part of American culture. It's part of our strength; it is also the source of some of our most difficult and complex problems.
Ever since the first European settlers clashed with Native American tribes, we have struggled to get along with each other, to understand each other, and to overcome the prejudice that sometimes translates into violent acts.
We are fortunate to live in a time when this kind of violence is declining. Some of us here today are old enough to remember when race-based hate crimes were daily headlines, and when prejudice rarely raised an eyebrow -- even among people who were otherwise good citizens.
We've come a long way in 30 years or so. Today, after decades of civil rights reform and a sea change in attitudes, hate crimes are reviled by our society as a whole.
And yet, we're here today for a reason. We're here because, as far as we've come, we still have a long way to go. We're here because racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the World Church of the Creator still have a presence here in Baltimore County.
We're here because hate crimes still occur. Every so often, a particularly horrific case reminds us that prejudice still breeds awful acts; the case of Matthew Shepard, the young man murdered in Wyoming because he was gay, is one of the more recent examples. Here in Baltimore County, we have averaged about 120 hate crimes, roughly half of them race based, over the last three years.
We're here because the current world situation poses new challenges and new threats against people of Middle Eastern descent. The number of hate crimes directed against these citizens has noticeably grown since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, both locally and across the nation.
We're here because we need thoughtful, constructive discussion about the point at which the constitutional freedom to say ugly things and express ugly ideas turns into a violation of someone else's rights.
This can be a tricky matter. Recently, for example, the racist World Church of the Creator made local headlines when the Baltimore County Public Library denied them permission to meet at one of their branches. No one disputes the group's constitutional right to express its views, however abhorrent they may be. No one disputes its right to assemble.
But the county believes that the library's denial is justifiable because the presence of such volatile groups threatens the public safety -- and specifically, the safety of library patrons and employees. The courts may ultimately be called upon to resolve this matter.
In the meantime, it's appropriate that we work to understand better the boundary between free speech and hurtful acts. This way, we do our best to guarantee the freedoms that are intrinsic to our way of life -- and we also do our best to protect innocent people from becoming victims of prejudice.
Just a few years ago, when I was a judge on the Circuit Court bench, I had a hate crimes case that permanently impressed on me how awful it must be to be targeted because of what you look like. The victim in that case suffered unspeakable harassment. His life was disrupted by fear. His right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was violated.
So we still need to promote respect for diversity; we still need to combat crimes that stem from sentiments our civilization hopefully will one day must outgrow.
I'm optimistic that we're headed in the right direction. "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said. "Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
You are such dedicated individuals. Thank you for doing your part to make us a better, safer society.
Revised March 13, 2003
Courthouse 