Napoleon Nelson for State Rep
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Napoleon Nelson for State Rep
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hate crimes platform

it's time to talk about hate crimes

 

I am deeply burdened by reports of  violence and harassment against members of the Asian American and  Pacific Islander or AAPI community.These attacks range from verbal  harassment to brutal physical assaults, and Pennsylvania is no  exception. A local outreach ministry serving the homeless reported the  robbery of an AAPI homeless woman in Montgomery county whose blanket was  taken from her because she was Asian and just a week ago, the Executive  Director of Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation was verbally  accosted on the street. Local reports of verbal harassment and worse  linked to Coronavirus date back to at least February. Wikipedia now  includes a page tracking worldwide coronavirus related hate crimes with a  section for Pennsylvania. AAPI businesses in Philadelphia and the  suburbs began to feel the brunt of racist responses to Coronavirus more  than a month before social distancing was even a concept for the rest of  us.

The history of this great country  suggests that these reports are likely just the tip of the iceberg. But  that same history also suggests that there exists a plurality of us who  have endured such treatment who now must be ready to support our  brothers and sisters in the face of such horrific shared experience.  Bigotry and hatred have been the disease that has plagued this country  long before COVID. 

It’s time to talk about racism and the rise of hate groups in Pennsylvania. According  to the 2019 Year in Hate and Extremism produced by the Intelligence  Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center or SPLC, “hundreds of hate  groups are operating in America, targeting immigrants and refugees,  LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Blacks and other people of color.” The SPLC  warns violence and extremism of hate groups is not “merely a criminal  crisis in America. It is also a political crisis… and has to be engaged  politically.” I agree with the SPLC’s call for a national movement  against hate violence in America. There is an unfiltered, racist  rhetoric that has found a home on the dark web and sanctuary in our  national discourse. It is time for a movement against organized bigotry  by all levels of government. 

SPLC’s Hatewatch identified 36 active  hate groups and 42 anti-government groups active in Pennsylvania during  2019. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 171 hate related incidents in  Pennsylvania, nearly one every other day during 2019. Of 171 incidents  in the state, 69 occurred in Philadelphia and 4 took place in this very  district. These are just the incidents that are reported to the ADL.  Many are never reported.

When it comes to reporting these  incidents to the FBI, Pennsylvania has a chronically low reporting rate  and the Pennsylvania statute defining what constitutes a hate crime is  overly restrictive and outdated. The current legal definition includes  only the categories of race, religion and ethnicity, placing  Pennsylvania law among the weakest in the country. However, we are  fortunate to have the PA Human Relations Commission that enables the  reporting of bias incidents that do not meet the threshold of a  statutory hate crime. Many states do not have this type of mechanism. 

In October of 2019, our own State  Rep. Steve McCarter was one of 42 members of the Pennsylvania House to  co-sponsor four bills that are known as the Hate Crimes Legislation  Package (HB 2013, HB 2012, HB 2010, HB 2011). They  are proposing reforms and improvements that will fulfill the  recommendations in the SPLC report by “educating, training and assisting  civil society to effectively respond to social movements that exploit  bigotry and intolerance.” The  co-sponsors noted that, of the 1,463 law enforcement agencies across the  state that submitted numbers on crimes in 2017, only 20 submitted hate  crime incident reports. It’s past time to equip law enforcement  officials with the tools they need to properly investigate, identify and  report hate crimes. The four proposed bills will:

  • Increase penalties for those convicted of a hate crime
  • Provide law enforcement with more tools to identify and react to hate crimes
  • Require those convicted of hate crimes to complete diversity classes and allow community impact statements
  • Extend protections to people in the LGBTQ and disabled communities 
  • Provide post secondary students with a way to anonymously report hate crimes

I have spent this last week  consulting with leaders in the AAPI community, Civil Rights attorneys,  scholars, law enforcement, and members of our faith community to better  understand how these crimes impact our AAPI brothers and sisters, how  these proposed reforms would improve reporting procedures in law  enforcement and in higher education, and what might need to be added to  make these bills even more effective. From those conversations, I  believe we need to go further, creating systems that allow victims and  witnesses to have a straight-forward and language-accessible way to  report incidents and one in which victims are supported in pursuing  justice. We must put funding behind these initiatives so they are not  unfunded mandates that add requirements without giving our law  enforcement departments the resources they need. Hate crimes need to be  named for what they are, investigated and prosecuted. Further, we must  fund the security measures that will make our synagogues, mosques and  community centers that serve the AAPI, immigrant, Jewish, Muslim,  Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu, communities safe places to worship and  gather. 

It is time to identify and  investigate crimes committed by those that espouse hateful extremist  views against ethnic, religious, immigrant, sexual orientation, and  gender identity groups as well as those living with disability. It is  time to pass these bills in Harrisburg. It is time to fund this work  within law enforcement agencies. Finally, it is time that we draw on  that faith that each of our dark pasts have taught us and stand in  solidarity against racism and hatred. Let us all stand up and refuse to  tolerate this kind of behavior. It is our tolerance of these behaviors  that weakens us all.

Napoleon Nelson for State Rep

PO Box 53 Wyncote, PA 19095

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