Deval Patrick to revive hate crimes task force

[Ian David]

by Ethan Jacobs
Bay Windows
Friday Nov 9, 2007

Kevin Burke, secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), announced Nov. 2 that Gov. Deval Patrick plans to reconvene the defunct Governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes, a body that was disbanded in 2003 by his predecessor, Mitt Romney. Burke made his announcement during a joint meeting of the Greater Boston Civil Rights Coalition (GBCRC) and the Massachusetts Association of Human Rights and Relations Commission (MAHRC) held at the headquarters of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association. Burke told the group of about 30 people attending the meeting, representing a mix of Jewish and LGBT civil rights groups, municipal human rights commissions, the American Civil Liberties Union, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating’s office, Boston Public Schools, and state Reps. Carl Sciortino and Denise Provost, among others, that while the Patrick administration is still working out the details behind the structure of the new body, it will build on the work of the prior task force.

"The good news is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You have to get the wheel moving forward again," said Burke.

According to Don Gorton, co-chair of the former Governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes from 1991-2003 and chair of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, the original task force was established in 1991 by Gov. William Weld’s administration under prompting from the Anti-Violence Project, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council. The original mission of the task force was to develop guidelines for the implementation of the state’s hate crimes law, and over the years it worked to inform municipalities and police departments of their responsibility for reporting hate crimes. In 1998 the task force expanded its efforts to target the root causes of hate crimes, launching a Student Civil Rights Project to target bigotry among the state’s school-aged children. That project included the formation of civil rights teams in high schools across the state and the launch of an annual Stop the Hate Week initiative. In its final years the task force advised law enforcement on the dangers of heightened anti-Muslim hate crimes after 9/11 and worked to develop a state anti-bullying curriculum. In 2003 Romney cut funding to the task force, effectively disbanding it.

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One key focus of the task force will be law enforcement, and Burke said the administration is reviewing the police training curriculum to ensure that officers learn about hate crimes not only during their initial training but throughout their career at regular in-service trainings. He also said he expects Patrick to ask Attorney General Martha Coakley to co-chair the task force, and he said the state’s district attorneys will play a key role in the task force’s work.

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