Repug stalls bill to make lynching a federal crime

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Rand Paul stalls bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime

...About 4,075 African Americans were lynched in 12 southern states between 1877 and 1950, according to a 2015 report by the Equal Justice Initiative. Some were watched by crowds, as if attending a form of public entertainment.

Ida B Wells, a crusading African American journalist, once said: “Our country’s national crime is lynching.”

The killing of Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, caught on film and seen by millions, has been likened to a 21st-century lynching. It spurred more than two weeks of worldwide protests.

From 1882 to 1986, Congress failed to pass anti-lynching legislation 200 times, but this moment appeared to be different.

Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Tim Scott, the only three African American members of the Senate, led the unanimous passage of the legislation in that chamber in 2018 and 2019. The House of Representatives then passed it by a 410-4 vote in February but renamed it for Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955...

See also Over 2,000 Black People Were Lynched From 1865 to 1877, Study Finds.

Matt Davies

Letter to the editor in today's SF Chronicle:

Ongoing LGBTQ intolerance

Concerning “Landmark victory for LGBTQ rights” (Page 1, June 16): While the Supreme Court ruling that federal law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is a significant step toward greater equality for all Americans, this transgender citizen would like to remind everyone that he cannot currently serve in the military under an order by President Trump.

Furthermore, nearly one-fifth of all U.S. hate crimes reported by the FBI last year were against LGBTQ people. And in just the past week, two black trans women were killed, and the Trump administration reversed protections for transgender people in the U.S. health care system. 

So while there is cause for celebration of this Supreme Court ruling, the ongoing intolerance and violence being directed toward the LGBTQ community, especially the “T” part, should not and cannot be ignored.

Jess Regnault

San Jose

2 died of Ebola: They said Obama should resign.

4 died in Benghazi: They had Hillary testify for 11 hours, held 33 hearings, and launched a multiyear probe.

118,741 died thanks to Trump’s incompetence: They cheered him in the Rose Garden. #TrumpPressConference

— Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) June 16, 2020

Thanks to democratic underground.