Medical Whistleblower - Hate Crimes

What is a Hate Crime? How is it different from other crimes? How does it impact victims? Let's hear from some victims of hate crime and see from a personal perspective how truly violating these crimes really are. We are reminded by the recent violence in Wichita, Kansas of the insidious nature of hate crime. The murder of a doctor who ran a women's clinic in Wichita is said to have been done by an abortion opponent. Referring to the killing of Kansas doctor George Tiller, Attorney General Eric Holder said nothing can justify the act. There was the shooting death of a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, said to be by a self-avowed white supremacist and the shooting of two U.S. soldiers in Little Rock, Arkansas, which prosecutors say was committed by a man targeting the U.S. military for what it had done to Muslims. All these crimes qualify as hate crimes. Just how many hate crimes are there in the United States? How well do we investigate them? Do we get some measure of justice for the victims? Eric Holder stated that "We will not tolerate murder or the threat of violence masquerading as political activism," he said. "And we will do all that we can to deter violence against reproductive health care providers and to prosecute those who commit such violence to the fullest extent of the law." Thus the head of our Department of Justice, Eric Holder has renewed his call for stronger hate crimes legislation and given his support to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which is expected to go before the Senate for a vote soon.