PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:  The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, of which I am a member, will hold a briefing on hate crimes on Friday, May 11 at the Commission’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The briefing will include an open forum at which members of the public are invited to share their experiences and views. Those who are unable to attend the briefing or who wish to elaborate more fully upon their oral comments are invited to submit written comments to the Commission.

If you or a close family member has been the victim of a hate crime, or if you or a close family member has personal experience of an alleged hate crime that was later shown to be a hoax, please share your experience with us. How crimes get classified as hate crimes or not hate crimes is an important subject of interest to the Commission. If you or a close family member has been involved in a crime that was classified as a hate crime, but you believe should not have been (or a crime that was not classified as a hate crime, but you believe should have been), again, let us hear from you. Currently, the federal hate crimes statute covers race, color, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. If you or a close family member has been the victim of a violent bias crime on some other status basis that you believe should be covered by the law, let us know about that too.

We are also interested in hearing from law enforcement about which crimes are or are not reported to the FBI as hate crimes and how law enforcement officers are instructed to make that determination.

Details regarding the oral comment period are available here, and you may send written comments to . If you would like to communicate with me about Commission business, the prefix on my Commission address begins with gheriot. Don’t use the comment section here.