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Stiffer penalties for hate crimes
Briona Arradondo reports
TAMPA, Fla. – As folks keep in mind the horrors of the Holocaust on International Holocaust Remembrance Day Friday, anti-Semitism continues to be a significant concern, prompting a Florida state representative to introduce a bill targeting hate crimes.
State Representative Mike Caruso, R-Palm Beach, launched House Bill 269 forward of Florida’s legislative session, after seeing reports of anti-Semitic incidents throughout Florida.
“We’ve seen anti-Semitism on the rise for the past five years,” mentioned Caruso, who represents District 87. “We’ve seen in the CSX building in Jacksonville the projection of swastikas on the building. And even three blocks from my own home in West Palm Beach, the projection of swastikas and hate messages, anti-Semitic hate messages on the AT&T building.”
He added that there have been additionally anti-Semitic pamphlets distributed in Jewish neighborhoods in Boca Raton and on vehicles in West Palm Beach.
Caruso’s proposed bill would goal these varieties of acts, making them hate crimes that might be a third-degree felony. The bill focuses on acts like littering, harassment and stalking, and vandalism.
“My bill takes away no First Amendment rights. It just says if you’re putting out this kind of behavior, this kind of speech or this kind of presentation on pamphlets or on projected on the walls, and you’re doing it in combination with another crime, then it becomes a hate crime,” mentioned Caruso.
The Florida Holocaust Museum’s board chair mentioned it’s a transfer he helps to point out Florida stands towards hate. The museum opened its door without spending a dime to museum guests Friday to teach them concerning the Holocaust.
“I often say that Holocaust Remembrance Day is every day to people like me. My grandparents were Holocaust survivors,” mentioned Michael Igel, the board chair of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. “But it’s one where I think we take even some extra time to really think about the lessons, think about the victims, think about the survivors.”
While many years now separate that second in historical past, hate and anti-Semitism has not gone away. The FBI launched its 2021 hate crime statistics in December, discovering 64 % of victims had been focused as a result of of their race, ethnicity or ancestry and practically 32 % of religious-related incidents had been anti-Jewish.
“It’s like my grandparents would say they used to teach my brother and me, this was the worst in people, but you must teach people that it was also the best in people,” mentioned Igel, who spends time educating college students concerning the Holocaust. “I’m alive because people did the right thing, people who didn’t have to.”
Igel mentioned the proposed regulation is a galvanizing second towards bigotry, one he believes his grandparents could be proud of.
“I know they would look at this and say, one of the causes of the Holocaust, it was state sponsored genocide. So, this is the opposite of that. This is a legislature stepping up and saying no,” mentioned Igel.
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