ADC welcomes federal indictment of Dylann Roof on hate crime charges

 

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

 ADC welcomes federal indictment of Dylann Roof on hate crime charges

Washington, DC | www.adc.org | July 23, 2015 – The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)  welcomes the federal grand jury indictment charging Dylann Roof with hate crimes under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released the grand jury indictment of Roof. As alleged, Roof perpetrated the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people and injuring several more in an attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The grand jury charged Roof on 33 counts, including nine murders and three attempted murders under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and twelve counts of Obstruction of Exercise of Religion.

ADC holds that the hate crimes allegedly committed by Roof also clearly meet the definition of “domestic terrorism” under US law.  These hate crimes were “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.”  Labeling and discussing these crimes as “domestic terrorism” will help to combat the misperception that terrorism is only committed by certain ethnic and racial groups. The attacks in South Carolina show us that it is wrong to associate ethnic and racial minorities with acts of terrorism as terrorists can come from any number of different backgrounds.

Click here to watch Attorney General Lynch’s statement following the federal grand jury indictment against Dylann Roof.

ADC continues to urge the DOJ to bring hate crime charges against Craig Hicks for the murder of three young Arab-Americans on February 10, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  ADC strongly believes that these killings were committed because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of the victims: Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad, and Razan Mohammad. 

 


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