It’s just a bill
Monday, Dec 9, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Anti-Defamation League…
Leading civil rights groups will hold a news conference TOMORROW, Monday, December 9 at 9:00 AM to discuss a dramatic rise in hate crimes in Illinois and steps needed to protect at-risk communities. The news conference will be held at the headquarters of the Chicago Urban League.
The civil rights groups will call on the Illinois State House of Representatives to pass SB 3552/HB 5368 during January’s Lame Duck Legislative Session. The bill requires all law enforcement in Illinois to receive on-going training and education on state and federal hate crimes laws and how to identify, report, and respond to bias-motivated criminal activity.
SB 3552/HB 5368 is modeled after a 2023 recommendation from the Governor’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes, which noted: “A mandate of comprehensive basic and in-service hate crimes training… will help victims of hate crimes and incidents receive appropriate responses, bridge data and investigatory gaps, and develop trust between communities and law enforcement agencies.”
SB 3552 unanimously passed both the Illinois State Senate and the House committee of jurisdiction prior to the General Assembly recessing in June. Passage by the full House of Representatives during January’s Lame Duck Legislative Session is the only remaining legislative step to send the bill to Governor Pritzker for his signature and increase safety among Illinois’ most vulnerable communities. Illinois would become the 15th state in the country to require law enforcement in the state to receive hate crimes training and education.
The FBI’s most recent hate crimes data shows a 22-year high in the number of hate crimes reported across the United States and a 362% increase in the number of hate crimes reported in Illinois from 2019 (70 hate crimes reported) to 2023 (324 hate crimes reported).
* From the press conference…
Regional Director of the Midwest ADL David Goldenberg: [The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board] helped us draft this bill, so the state standard Training Board. Brendan Kelly, who’s the director of the Illinois State Police, serves on the [Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes] with myself and [Jim Bennett]. He has been very involved and supportive of this. It’s often law enforcement usually pushes back against more training. They’re actually embracing this one, and they’re saying, we need it as a policy. They typically don’t endorse a bill, but they filed a slip of no opposition this time.
You can watch the full press conference here.
* From SB3552…
The [General and the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board] shall develop or approve a course to assist law enforcement officers in identifying, responding to, and reporting crimes committed in whole or in substantial part because of the victim’s or another’s actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, or disability, or because of the victim’s actual or perceived association with another person or group of a certain actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, or disability. Each course must include instruction to help officers distinguish bias crimes from other crimes, to help officers in understanding and assisting victims of these crimes, and to ensure that bias crimes will be accurately reported. The Board must, within a reasonable amount of time, update this course to conform with national trends and best practices.
* Related…
- Anti-Hate - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 10:53 am:
Also like to add the broad coalition of partners who spoke at the presser:
Who (alphabetical order)
Nancy Andrade, Chair and Commissioner, City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations
Jim Bennett, Director, Illinois Department of Human Rights
Sara Block, Managing Director of Advocacy and Partnerships, Ascend Justice
Marty Castro, Interim President and CERO, Casa Central
Abbey Eusebio, Manager, Chinese American Service League’s Anti-Hate Center
Karen Freeman-Wilson, CEO, Chicago Urban League
David Goldenberg, Midwest Regional Director, ADL
Dan Goldwin, Chief Public Affairs Officer, Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Chicago
Elana Kahn, Executive Director, Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes
Patricia Mota, President and CEO, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE)
Upneet Teji, Illinois volunteer leader, Sikh Coalition
Shobhana Johri Verma, Executive Director, South Asian American Policy and Research Institute (SAAPRI)
Mike Ziri, Director of Public Policy, Equality Illinois
Representative from the American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council
Representative from the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Center Drift - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:05 am:
It’s still still wrong to make hate a crime. This leads to hate speech being criminal and how do you reconcile this with freedom of speech. This is the kind of law you expect in dictatorships. we should be eliminating it.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:08 am:
“Illinois would become the 15th state in the country to require law enforcement in the state to receive hate crimes training and education.”
Makes one wonder what exactly have police been doing in their multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded training facilities.
Other than shooting guns and lifting weights.
– MrJM
- Demoralized - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:30 am:
@Misterjayem
I’m ask this in all seriousness, but why do you have such a horrible attitude towards the police? You seem to have disdain for the police in general and I find that blanket dislike to be disturbing.
- Mason County - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:39 am:
= Center Drift - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:05 am:
It’s still still wrong to make hate a crime. This leads to hate speech being criminal and how do you reconcile this with freedom of speech. This is the kind of law you expect in dictatorships. we should be eliminating it.=
You said it better than I could.
- Demoralized - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 11:48 am:
==This leads to hate speech being criminal and how do you reconcile this with freedom of speech.==
It has nothing to do with freedom of speech and everything to do with the motivation for the crime.
Besides, contrary to popular belief you don’t necessarily have a right to say whatever you want.
==This is the kind of law you expect in dictatorships.==
This is the kind of law you expect in a civilized country. There is nothing defensible about hate and it’s silly you’re even trying.
- JS Mill - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:05 pm:
=This leads to hate speech being criminal and how do you reconcile this with freedom of speech.=
Speech that advocates violence is not protected by the 1st Amendment. I think that is an important differentiation. Speech that simply expresses hatred is protected. And we want those people to let us know who they are.
- Colors of Fall - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:06 pm:
Freedom of speech is not absolute. These issues are reconciled through reasoning and application of law/guidelines.
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:09 pm:
“It’s still still wrong to make hate a crime.”
Hate is not a crime, that’s a strawman. Committing an act of crime motivated by hate is a crime. This bill doesn’t try to force people to stop hating, it’s to train law enforcement to better respond to hate crimes.
- Google Is Your Friend - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 12:46 pm:
“A crime + Motivation for committing the crime based on bias = Hate crime”
https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/learn-about-hate-crimes
Read slowly and sound it out.
- @ Center Drift and @ Mason County - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 2:05 pm:
Does either law saw it is illegal to hate? No.
It is illegal to commit a violent crime against another citizen because you hate the group to which they belong.
Your “fears” are unfounded, and promote incivility by empowering hate.
The bills are about training police to recognize hate crimes, not about arresting people who hate.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 2:18 pm:
“why do you have such a horrible attitude towards the police?”
I never post anything resembling “cops are all evil people who suck.” I don’t believe that. (In fact, one of my very favorite people in the world retired from law enforcement.)
But I do believe that policing, as a multi-billion dollar institution, is fundamentally harmful.
My comments about policing are with regard specific things that police do and do not do.
Those things — those facts — are the source of any “attitude” regarding the practice of policing.
– MrJM
- H-W - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 2:27 pm:
Comment at 2:05 pm was me. Sorry for not following protocol.
- Demoralized - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 3:46 pm:
==I never post anything resembling==
I would argue you have but thanks for the explanation anyway. I have no reason to doubt you.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Dec 9, 24 @ 4:09 pm:
“I would argue you have”
I’m trying to read this as something other than an assertion that I’m lying.
I already answered your inflammatory question politely, now I’m out.
– MrJM