TALLAHASSEE, FLA. (WSVN) - A group of state lawmakers are taking on hate. They’re introducing a bill that would enhance penalties for antisemitic crimes.
Under the proposed state law, actions like tossing hate-filled flyers onto driveways, projecting images like a swastika on a building in West Palm Beach and painting graffiti on signs in Weston, will become felonies.
“You have the right to be an idiot in the United States. We have the First Amendment; it doesn’t mean you’re an idiot if you exercise the First Amendment,” said Florida State Rep. Randy Fine. “You have the right to be a Nazi, but you do not have the right to be a Nazi and engage in criminal conduct.”
“We are called to stand for the six million Jews that were murdered by Hitler’s Nazis in World War II,” said Florida State Rep. Mike Caruso. “Today we are called to stand for the 672,000 Jews that live in Florida.”
House Bill 269 targets flyers similar to those tossed in front yards across South Florida for months that “involves material that evidences religious or ethnic animus, including content … The offense is reclassified as a felony of the third degree … (and) shall be considered a hate crime.”
It also makes it a felony to deface with anti-religious or ethnic graffiti in the following places:
- Place of worship
- Religious cemetery or memorial, including a Holocaust memorial
- School/community center linked to religious or ethnic group
- Public or private property
High-tech graffiti would also be illegal if it’s projected by someone who does not own the building.
“If we don’t do something now, then soon we just may have 1933 Nazi Germany here all over again,” Caruso said.
“This is the kind of thing that would easily have an influence and an impact on businesses, not only the recruitment but the retention of businesses in state of Florida,” said Florida State Rep. Vicki Lopez.
“Wearing [a yarmulke] should not put a target in your back,” Fine said. “I say this as one of them: Jews are scared today in Florida.”
The bill’s sponsors said they don’t expect any roadblocks, and that this may pass the legislature fairly easily.
The session is scheduled to begin in March.
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