Last week, a video surfaced on YouTube of a high school student in Noblesville, Indiana, wearing a flag with a swastika and shouting profanities in a public park.
To Alexa Griffith, the video was a reminder of a lack of legislative protection for her four children — namely, punishments for those who commit hate crimes.
“That’s not what we stand for, and it’s not safe for anyone,” Griffith said during a rally at the Indiana Statehouse Tuesday. “It harms everybody.”
Griffith joined around 100 rally-goers at the Statehouse to support hate crime legislation that is currently being discussed in the state Senate.
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Indiana legal code refers to a hate crime as a bias crime. Crimes qualify as bias crimes when the person who committed it "knowingly or intentionally: (a) selected the person who was injured; or (b) damaged or otherwise affected property by the offense because of the color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation of the injured person,” according to an Indiana bill passed in 2000.
Though the Indiana Civil Rights Commission already has a reporting network for hate crimes, Indiana is one of five states without legislation giving additional punishments to those who commit hate crimes.
Senate Bill 271, which the rally supported, will establish legal punishments for those found guilty of a hate crime. These punishments include up to an additional five years for a felony and three years for a misdemeanor when those found guilty are sentenced.
If passed, the bill would also mandate that police officers “receive training in identifying, responding to, and reporting bias motivated crimes.”
Organizer Amy Nelson said the rally aimed to call attention to the bill and display the diversity of Indiana residents who support it.
Speakers at the rally represented an array of religions, races and sexual orientations. However, one speaker directed his speech to his age group.
Kyle Casteel, the community resource coordinator of Indiana Youth Group, said a hate crime law would not only attract people to Indiana, but it would also keep young professionals from moving out of the state.
“Please stay, because it’s only young people like us working and fighting hard who are going to change things here,” Casteel said.
Speaker Gurinder Singh, founder and chairman of SikhsPAC, moved to Indiana after being raised in India.
Self-described as an “American by choice,” Singh worries his appearance will hinder what he originally came to the United States for — economic opportunity and respect.
“There’s only one religion in this world. That is love, compassion and selfless service,” Singh said. “And there’s only one race on this earth, and that’s the human race.”
This isn’t the first time a bill proposing punishments for those who commit hate crimes has touched state legislature — last year, a bill was discussed in committee, but did not reach the Senate floor.
Though the rally was standing room only, hate crime bills aren’t without opposition. In the past, opposers felt Indiana code already sufficiently covers all citizens.
Nelson disagreed.
“Indiana code doesn’t cover [everyone], and federal law does not apply to every type of crime,” Nelson said. “So we need to have our own state law that’s comprehensive and that would provide equal justice. I don’t think it’s fair that if I go to another state, I have more justice if a hate crime occurs than the state that I live in.”
After the rally, Nelson encouraged those in attendance to lobby lawmakers before the Indiana Senate met that afternoon to discuss the legislation.
Contact Sara Barker with comments at slbarker3@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @sarabarker326.
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