Hate Crime Facts
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
This letter is in regard to the portion of Steven Hite's 3/21/07 letter that "informed" us of House Bill 1459. Unfortunately, the pleas of Mr. Hite and other ill-informed people have been heard at the Indiana Statehouse, as House Bill 1459 didn't garner enough votes for passage even before his letter was written.
I did want to make the good people of Warsaw aware, even after the fact, of what House Bill 1459 really would have put in to law.
HB 1459 was authored by State Rep. Greg Porter (D-Indianapolis), one of the most respected African-American members of the Indiana House of Representatives. HB1459 amends Indiana's sentencing law to add the following as aggravating circumstances for persons who commit "bias crimes," specifically the person who committed the offense knowingly or intentionally: selected the individual who was injured by the offense; or (B) damaged or otherwise affected property by the offense; because of the color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex of the injured individual or of the owner or occupant of the property.
Hate or bias crime laws recognize the particular threat of bias-motivated violence. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted some sort of penalty enhancement hate crime statute. Indiana is one of the five who have not.
According to the FBI, racial bias accounts for 53 percent of all hate crimes, while 18 percent are based on religious bias, 13 percent on ethnicity/national origin, 15 percent on sexual orientation, and 1 percent on disability.
I just wanted you to have the facts.
Lisa Rector
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
This letter is in regard to the portion of Steven Hite's 3/21/07 letter that "informed" us of House Bill 1459. Unfortunately, the pleas of Mr. Hite and other ill-informed people have been heard at the Indiana Statehouse, as House Bill 1459 didn't garner enough votes for passage even before his letter was written.
I did want to make the good people of Warsaw aware, even after the fact, of what House Bill 1459 really would have put in to law.
HB 1459 was authored by State Rep. Greg Porter (D-Indianapolis), one of the most respected African-American members of the Indiana House of Representatives. HB1459 amends Indiana's sentencing law to add the following as aggravating circumstances for persons who commit "bias crimes," specifically the person who committed the offense knowingly or intentionally: selected the individual who was injured by the offense; or (B) damaged or otherwise affected property by the offense; because of the color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex of the injured individual or of the owner or occupant of the property.
Hate or bias crime laws recognize the particular threat of bias-motivated violence. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted some sort of penalty enhancement hate crime statute. Indiana is one of the five who have not.
According to the FBI, racial bias accounts for 53 percent of all hate crimes, while 18 percent are based on religious bias, 13 percent on ethnicity/national origin, 15 percent on sexual orientation, and 1 percent on disability.
I just wanted you to have the facts.
Lisa Rector
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
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