More than a dozen folks related to the Goyim Defense League visited Daytona Beach this previous weekend to unfold anti-Semitic propaganda, officers mentioned.
But a bill launched earlier this 12 months within the Florida House, HB 269: Public Nuisances, seeks to enhance penalties in connection to such actions. The bill was within the Criminal Justice Subcommittee as of Feb. 1.
Members of the hate group stood on the pedestrian bridge over International Speedway Boulevard on Saturday and held up banners with anti-Semitic statements on them, police mentioned.
The group additionally tried to digitally challenge hate speech onto Daytona International Speedway the day before the 500.
In Ormond Beach, police mentioned flyers with anti-Semitic propaganda have been distributed all through town this weekend. Although officers haven’t attributed them to any group, the flyers reference GoyimTV.TV, a video platform for the GDL.
Similar incidents have been reported throughout the state.
In Jacksonville:Antisemitic hate message displayed at end of Florida-Georgia game
Hate rising:Anti-Defamation League reports increase in antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault
Who proposed the bill and what would it not do?
Rep. Mike Caruso, R-Delray Beach, filed the bill in January. It is co-sponsored by Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, and a number of other others together with Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County.
If an individual violates Florida’s litter legislation with “material that evidences religious or ethnic animus,” the offense can be reclassified as a third-degree felony and reported as a hate crime, the proposed bill’s textual content states.
HB 269:Read the proposed bill here
The bill additionally makes it a felony and hate crime if an individual:
-
Willfully follows, harasses or interferes with somebody primarily based on the “person’s wearing of religious-based garments or garments commonly associated with a particular religious or ethnic group or any other indicia of any religious or ethnic heritage”
-
Willfully and maliciously defaces, injures or damages a spiritual cemetery or any gravesite, marker, memorial, plaque, statue, museum, college, group middle, or different public or personal property that has any indicia of any non secular or ethnic heritage (this contains “any physical manifestations of anti-Semitism…such as a swastika”)
-
“Projects an image outdoors onto a publicly or privately owned building or other property” with out the proprietor’s written consent if the picture evidences non secular or ethnic animus
-
Willfully interrupts or disturbs “any school or any assembly of people met for the worship of God, any assembly of people for the purpose of acknowledging the death of an individual, or for any other lawful purpose” with non secular or ethnic animus
How did native legislation enforcement reply to current incidents?
Daytona Beach police referred to the group on the pedestrian bridge as “First Amendment Auditors,” in accordance to a press launch.
A police spokesperson mentioned the group tried to bait officers “into violating their rights in hopes of acquiring justification for a lawsuit” towards the division.
“The Daytona Beach Police Department remained and will continue to remain professional through their encounters with them while they exercised their first amendment rights,” the discharge states.
Daytona Beach police Chief Jakari Young mentioned officers are investigating, and anybody with information ought to contact Sgt. Tim Ehrenkaufer at [email protected].
Ormond Beach police Chief Jesse Godfrey also put out a statement denouncing the dissemination of antisemitic propaganda, which he mentioned police are investigating.
Godfrey urged anybody with information to contact Cpl. Jeremy Smith at [email protected].
What are legislators saying?
During a press convention saying the proposed bill in January, Caruso pointed to current incidents of Jewish girls and youngsters being harassed and projections of hate speech on buildings.
“If we don’t do something now, then soon we just may have 1933 Nazi Germany here all over again, and I will not stand here and do nothing; I will not be complacent, and I will not sit around,” Caruso mentioned.
Fine pointed to the rising variety of anti-Semitic incidents throughout the state and nation and the necessity to handle it, and the way the First Amendment comes into play.
“Silence in the face of evil is evil itself,” Fine mentioned. “You have the right to be a Nazi, but you do not have the right to be a Nazi and engage in criminal conduct, whether it is littering, whether it is trespassing, whether it is assault.”
This article initially appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Bill seeks to curb anti-Semitism like incidents in Daytona, Ormond