Press conference at City Hall on the spate of hate crimes

fter a weekend in which there were nine assaults referred by the police to the Hate Crimes Task Force for investigation, several concerned leaders and legislators held a press conference at City Hall to address the issue of increased bias crimes in New York City.

The first to speak was Rev. Herbert Daughtry, Senior pastor of the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn and long time activist. "We want to accentuate with all the emphasis we can command that we denounce violence against any person, irrespective of their religion, race, gender or sexual orientation," he stated. "We call upon leadership across the city, and indeed upon all decent people, to take a stand against violence. We especially ask people in religious institutions to make it a priority in their sermons, homilies and any other ways they reach their congregations. We echo the words of a host of very wise people across the centuries who have said that all that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing."

Daughtry went on to point out a relation between domestic and international occurrences. He said that during this time when the US has gone to war and is now occupying Iraq, there is a desensitization taking place. "We see so much violence and death on TV that we become calloused towards it. Therefore, the increase of violence based on race or religion may not disturb us as much as it should. We're here to disturb people by saying there is a war over in Iraq, but there is a possibility of an explosion right here in America, and we need to address it." Later on in the press conference Rev. Thomas Rivera, associate minister of the House of the Lord Church, commented on this as well.

Council Member and mayoral candidate Charles Barron spoke of Mayor Bloomberg's feeble attempt to handle the situation by merely reminding us over and over again that racial incidents are down 25% on Staten Island and 5% in the city. "That's totally irrelevant and ineffective because people are being hurt, regardless of your statistics," Barron said. "This isn't just political, this is very personal to people."

"The hour is getting late," he warned. "New York City is a racial powder keg about to explode. Our people aren't going to take it but for so long, and then you're going to get mad at us when things get out of hand and folks start striking back. Just as you don't blame the weatherman for hurricane Isabel," he continued, "don't blame us for predicting a racial explosion if things don't go right because the mayor doesn't provide strong leadership. He's not setting the right tone, the right climate. They see an aloof billionaire who just refuses to take the violence seriously."

Barron put forth two things he believes need to be done, one by the mayor and the other by the City Council. First, in consultation with the Black community about who should be on it, the mayor must put together a commission on race relations in New York City. "It's got to be a serious one, like the Kerner Commission in 1967 when the president wanted to know why the riots occurred," stated Barron, "not one of these little task forces on hate where they sit around doing nothing."

Secondly, he will be submitting legislation at the next stated meeting calling for September 20^th, the day they protested in Staten Island, as racial harmony day. The legislation will call for the City Council to put forth an agenda every year to combat racism in this city economically, structurally, institutionally, and individually. "We must have real budgetary items that make for a more equitable distribution of wealth because when people are not treated fairly it causes a lot of tension and violence," Barron asserted.

Larry Holmes, co-founder and spokesperson for International ANSWER, took the podium next. He said that if the mayor doesn't make a serious effort to reach out to the people who are victimized by racism and racist violence, "not only will there be no chance of the problem being dealt with and solved, but we'll have a situation where City Hall more and more is seen as dealing with the affluent, the powerful, the privileged, and ignoring and insulting everybody else in this city where the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are getting poorer."

Holmes also said we need to look at the underlying economic reasons involved in the situation because racial violence is usually tied in with higher levels of unemployment or a higher school drop out rate when people are forced out of college because they can't afford tuition. "If we don't do something about this there is more trouble ahead," he concluded.