Agenda - 12-04-2006-7a - Laserfiche WebLink

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II: Civic Participation and Equality lit' • The General Assembly should authorize the phasing in of Same-Day Registration beginning with early voting sites in all 100 counties, and expanding as quickly as is feasible. • The General Assembly should appropriate money for the Secretary of State's office for reporting and tracking of demographic data on appointees, and to provide for a state website to publicize current openings on appointed boards and commissions. Hate Crimes According to the Southern Poverty and Law Center (SPCC), every hour a hate crime is committed. Experts recognize that hate crimes are undercounted. Of those reported, eight blacks, three whites, three gays, three Jews, and one Latino become hate crime victims everyday. (Did these experts count women?) Although progress has been made in improving inter-group relations in the United States and in NC, stereotypes accompanied by fear remain commonplace. Without education as well as constructive steps to build understanding on a personal level, stereotypes will lead to discrimination, racist policies, and eventually, hate crimes. Organizations that promote and nurture hatred of others because of their race, religion, sex, disability, or sexual orientation are loosely referred to as hate groups. According to an Intelligence Report from the SPCC, there are only six states with more known hate groups than NC. There are 22 active hate groups in NC, among which are ten Ku Klux Klan and six Neo=Nazi groups Women must respond to the challenge of hate groups and hate violence. Women's organizations are often in an ideal position to build alliances with people of color and their organizations around issues of community safety.. For. example, women have historically raised issues of community safety with local police. This relationship can be leveraged to secure greater access to the police for others who are. victims of harassment and hate crimes. Alliances of mutual understanding built on open and frank communication need to be developed. There are many models for cross-cultural communication being used today; e.g. the Study Circles Program Communities have the ability to accomplish a great deal in reducing hate crimes. Communities can inquire if local police have personnel trained by the NC Justice Academy on hate crime reporting and verification as well as encourage untrained officers to obtain such training. Also, local media can be enlisted to support officer training in identifying and reporting hate crimes, while giving positive local support and publicity. to officers who receive this training. The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) -Division of Criminal Information will provide technical assistance to local agencies for hate crime reporting. Although none of this training is mandatory, without it, the SBI's Division of Criminal Information cannot accept crime reports to local police departments. This contributes to the undercount of hate crimes in the NC. NC's Ethnic Intimidation Act, our state hate crime law, fails to address hate crimes and bias related incidents. against women. The current law provides protections only for crimes motivated by race, color, religion, national origin and ethnicity, failing to address crimes motivated by bias based on sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, and disability status. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION... • General Assembly should support legislation that would add sex, age, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, and disability status to the existing Ethnic Intimidation law. , • Assure that local schools have access to SPLC's "Teaching Tolerance" curricula or other similar materials. 2006-2007 Women's Draft Agenda 10