Meeting Between Local Law Enforcement, Community Leaders Aims To Combat Hate Crimes
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Local law enforcement officials met with leaders from more than 150 community groups Wednesday evening at the National Constitution Center to discuss tackling hate crimes.
Newly minted Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro was among the officials who spoke on what law enforcement is doing to combat hate crimes.
"Anyone who tries to roll back the rights of Pennsylvanians will have to go through me and the Attorney General's Office," Shapiro said. "We will make sure that every single kind of person is always protected and always at the forefront."
An uptick in hate crimes over the last few years is the reason United States Attorney Robert Reed decided to hold the "Unifying Our Communities Responding To Hate" symposium.
"We were getting many calls from concerned people and organizations that there were hate crimes," Reed said, "there were incidents that were really disturbing and they wanted to know what could they do, what could be done and what were we in law enforcement are doing to do about it."
During the meeting, there were panels focusing on discrimination, communities speaking out and options people have to deal with hate crimes.
