Indiana Forward Wants To Make 2019 The Year A Hate Crime Law Passes

By Erica Irish
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—There’s little doubt the hate crimes discussion in Indiana will dominate conversation through the next legislative session.

And a coalition of several hundred state business leaders and interest groups want to see to it that lawmakers do more than talk by upping the pressure on them to finalize a bill that better defines and punishes bias crimes.

Earlier in December, the United Way of Central Indiana announced the coalition as the Indiana Forward movement, a campaign designed to lobby for a bias crimes bill in 2019. The self-described “broad and bipartisan group” encompasses voices from the state’s faith communities, colleges and universities, nonprofits, employers and more.

Mike Leppert, who serves as Indiana Forward’s campaign manager, and Mindi Goodpaster, United Way of Central Indiana’s vice president of public policy, are championing the effort, which includes support from the likes of Indiana giants Eli Lilly and Company, Salesforce Inc. and Cummins Inc. Its executive committee is dotted with names from the Indiana Youth Group, the Muslim Alliance of Indiana and the state’s American Civil Liberties Union.

Leppert said Tuesday the coalition is pushing for specific language in the law that would protect people targeted on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sex, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation and that would push courts to further consider sentence aggravators or enhancements in such crimes. The group views these elements as “non-negotiable,” he added.

A sentence aggravator would allow a judge to increase the severity of a sentence within a certain crime classification. This is determined if more than half of the evidence indicates an underlying motive, such as attacking a person because of their race.

Sentence enhancements are similar but allow the crime to be charged at a higher level, such as moving a charge from a Level 1 felony to a Level 2 felony. Such a decision must be determined beyond a reasonable doubt.

Indiana currently provides a definition for bias crimes in general terms, noting any crime in which a person, group of people or property was harmed or damaged due to its association with a “color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation,” granting those involved in the judicial system a basis to determine aggravating factors.

The Indiana Supreme Court also determined in a 2003 case, Witmer v. State, that judges can consider a victim’s characteristics to justify an enhanced sentence. In this case, the court determined a murder victim, 17-year-old Sasezly Richardson, was targeted because she was black and used this conclusion to justify a longer sentence for the perpetrator, Alex Witmer.

Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, and former Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, used this ruling and Indiana courts’ virtually limitless power in considering case evidence as justification for blocking last session’s hate crimes bill, which never received a vote.

While Leppert agreed these powers exist, he said case decisions show they are rarely used.

“What’s lacking is the state’s response to things that are illegal and intolerable,” Leppert said.

Goodpaster and Leppert added the state has little to lose by enforcing Indiana Forward’s legislation, which can only be enacted when a crime occurs.

“The biggest misconception is that we’re trying to control thoughts or beliefs. Someone has to commit a crime to be punished,” Goodpaster said. “It is not a crime to think or believe, but as soon as you commit a crime against a person, a group of people or their property, this law will affect you.”

“If I were them, I would pass this as soon as possible,” Lepper added, noting that extended support from Gov. Eric Holcomb is placing considerable weight on Republican leaders in both chambers.

Holcomb first called for legislation in a tweet this summer after a Jewish temple in Carmel, Congregation Shaarey Tefilla, was vandalized with anti-Semitic symbols. He further outlined the necessity of the law in his legislative agenda presented earlier this month, where he modeled his recommendation on the state’s existing workplace harassment prevention policy.

“I fully appreciate the ‘where does the list stop’ discussion,” Holcomb said Tuesday, referring to prior hate crimes law debates. “However, we’ve had an employment policy in place in this office since 2005 that’s worked just fine, and so I didn’t want to take a step back from that.”

The harassment policy includes protections for all of the characteristics Indiana Forward wants to be included in a bias crimes law, as well as guidance for those harassed for their national origin, ancestry and veteran status.

“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s long overdue. I’ll take some responsibility for it not being checked off the list already,” Holcomb said.

The Indiana Forward website provides additional information about the group’s 2019 policy goals. Lawmakers will reconvene for the legislative session on Jan. 3.

FOOTNOTE: Erica Irish is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. Mike Leppert writes a column for TheStatehouseFile.com.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today detailed which functions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will remain available in the event of a lapse in government funding.

“There may be a lapse in funding for the federal government, but that will not relieve USDA of its responsibilities for safeguarding life and property through the critical services we provide,” said Secretary Perdue.  “Our employees work hard every day to benefit our customers and the farmers, ranchers, foresters, and producers who depend on our programs. During a shutdown, we will leverage our existing resources as best we can to continue to provide the top-notch service people expect.”

Some USDA activities will be shut down or significantly reduced and some USDA employees will be furloughed.  However, certain USDA activities would continue because they are related to law enforcement, the protection of life and property, or are financed through available funding (such as through mandatory appropriations, multi-year discretionary funding, or user fees).  For the first week of a potential shutdown, 61% of employees would either be exempted or excepted from shutdown activities.  If the shutdown continues, this percentage would decrease, and activities would be reduced as available funding decreases.

USDA activities that would continue in the short-term include:

• Meat, poultry, and processed egg inspection services.
• Grain and other commodity inspection, weighing, grading, and IT support services funded by user fees.
• Inspections for import and export activities to prevent the introduction and dissemination of pests into and out of the U.S, including inspections from Hawaii and Puerto Rico to the mainland.
• Forest Service law enforcement, emergency and natural disaster response, and national defense preparedness efforts.
• Forest Service employees will continue to work on managing and maintaining the current forest system lands and sustaining the health and safety of the lands for their continued use.
• Continuity and maintenance of some research measurements and research-related infrastructure, such as germplasm, seed storage, and greenhouses.
• Care for animals, plants and associated infrastructure to preserve agricultural research and to comply with the Wild Horses and Burros statute.
• Eligible households will still receive monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for January.
• Most other domestic nutrition assistance programs, such as the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, WIC, and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, can continue to operate at the State and local level with any funding and commodity resources that remain available.  Additional Federal funds and commodities will not be provided during the period of the lapse.
• The Child Nutrition (CN) Programs, including School Lunch, School Breakfast, Child and Adult Care Feeding, Summer Food Service and Special Milk will continue operations into February. Meal providers are paid on a reimbursement basis 30 days after the end of the service month. Carryover funding will be available during a lapse to support FY 2019 meal service.
• Minimal administrative and management support, including to excepted IT systems and contracts, will be maintained to support the above activities.
• Provision of conservation technical and financial assistance (such as Conservation

Reserve Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and easement programs).

• • Some farm payments (including direct payments, market assistance loans, market facilitation payments, and disaster assistance programs) will be continued for the first week of a shutdown.
  • Market Facilitation Program payments.
  • Trade mitigation purchases made by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service.
  • Agricultural export credit and other agricultural trade development and monitoring activities.

• USDA’s Market News Service, which provides critically important market information to the agricultural industry.

The following USDA activities would not be continued and would be shut down in an orderly fashion during a government funding lapse.  These activities include:

• Provision of new rural development loans and grants for housing, community facilities, utilities and businesses.
• All recreation sites across the U.S National Forest System, unless they are operated by external parties under a recreational special use permit.
• New timber sales.
• Most forest fuels reduction activities in and around communities.
• NASS statistics, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, and other agricultural economic and statistical reports and projections.
• Investigation of packers and stockyards related to fraudulent and anti-competitive activities.
• Assistance for the control of most plant and animal pests and diseases unless funded by cooperators or other non-appropriated sources.
• Research facilities except for the care for animals, plants and associated infrastructure to preserve agricultural research.
• Provision of new grants or processing of payments for existing grants to support research, education, and extension.
• ERS Commodity Outlook Reports, Data Products, research reports, staff analysis, and projections.  The ERS public website would be taken offline.
• Most departmental management, administrative and oversight functions, including civil rights, human resources, financial management, audit, investigative, legal and information technology activities.
• Mandatory Audits (Financial Statements, FISMA, and potentially Improper Payments) will be suspended and may not be completed and released on the date mandated by law.
• After the first week, farm loans and some farm payments (including direct payments, market assistance loans, market facilitation payments for those producers who have not certified production, and disaster assistance programs).

A summary of USDA’s shutdown plans can be found here.

A list of shutdown plans by USDA agency and office can be found here.  Note that the National Finance Center information can be found on pages 7 to 9 of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) document on that page.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US 

 By Jim Redwine

If the message of Christmas were simply gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, etc., etc., it would have died out about as unceremoniously as the current stock market. Therefore, we should probably consider if there are other possibilities.

When the Jews were conquered by the Romans they reacted as most oppressed people would. Their cultural myths concentrated on deliverance. In general, deliverance from an omnipotent force can take three approaches: armed rebellion; assimilation; and/or peaceful coexistence.

To some of the Hebrews, their hoped-for messiah would be a warrior who would throw off the Roman rule. To others, the approach was more of total capitulation. But for many, the thought was a Prince of Peace would provide the best hope. To fight Rome, as the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. showed, was to court annihilation. As the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius chronicled, a revolt by the Jews brought total devastation to their society.

On the other hand, the Romans and Jews of that time did not appear to be interested in peaceful coexistence except upon terms set by Rome. That left real deliverance from bondage for the Jewish people to be more metaphysical, that is, through philosophy, not armed resistance. And it took 2,000 years, the horrors of WWII and the benevolence of the world’s new Rome, the United States of America before Jewish self-determination could be realized. Still, true peace as called for by Jesus is elusive. The Middle East continues to be an area where armed rebellion is both ubiquitous and futile.

Perhaps we should give the true message of Christmas a chance. I know President Trump has his faults and I carry no brief for much of what our government does in our name. However, to withdraw from foreign conflicts that simply kill thousands, destroy cultures and cost trillions appears to me to be the course Jesus would call for. Merry Christmas and welcome home to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever else we are engulfed in endless counterproductive conflicts. And if we really are the new Rome maybe we should learn from the military fiascoes of that ancient one.

The debacle on Wall Street might best be addressed not by quarreling over interest rates but by investing our treasure in ourselves instead of squandering it in the vain pursuit of a Pax Americana.

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