The City Council passed unanimously yesterday a “Religious, Racial and Ethnic Acts of Malice Law” which makes it a misdemeanor to place a “symbol of hate” on both private and public property.
Rabbi Bemard Raskas, spiritual leader of Temple of Aaron, said the Council action marked “the first time in America that a City Council makes it a law, punishable by fine and imprisonment the placing of a symbol of hate” on property. He called it a “landmark law” which he said would go “a long way in protecting the rights and freedoms of all minorities.”
Raskas reported that representatives of Blacks, Indians, Hispanics, Vietnamese and Jewish groups attended the hearing on the bill. Each group spokesman urged the Council to demonstrate “on unprecedented solidarity” by passing the measure.
Raskas, one of the speakers at the Council session, said it was important that St. Paul residents “be taught by the City Council that expressions of hatred, bigotry and prejudice” are “incompatible with the democratic American way of life.” He noted that the session was being held on Purim and that “it is deeply meaningful to the Jewish community that an ordinance be passed which will help to curb everything that Haman stood for, namely hatred, discrimination and repression.”
BACKGROUND OF THE LAW
Councilman Leonard Levine, who introduced the measure, said it had been drawn up to correct a situation in which a person could deface public and private property and not be charged with vandalism “because there might not be compensable damage created in the act.” He cited as an example the daubing on a house of a swastika or the letters KKK with a substance which is removable without damage to the house. This is not covered under existing law.
Levine said his bill made it a misdemeanor to deface property, even if no damage was done, if that person placed such a symbol or object “and knows or has reasonable grounds to know it will arouse anger, alarm, or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed or religion’.”
In his formal statement of introduction of the measure, Levine said it was designed to make it a misdemeanor “for any person to intentionally or in reckless disregard put another person in fear of bodily harm or death by placing on public or private property a symbol, object, appellation, characterization, graffiti, a burning cross or Nazi swastika.”
The Councilman stated that “reports show that many such episodes of vandalism have increased significantly in the past 12 months as to be serious reason for concern.” He noted that businesses, churches and buildings owned or patronized by Asians, Koreans and native American Indians have been targeted for vandalism and desecration. “We have also seen a substantial increase in the number of episodes of vandalism directed mainly against residential Jewish property,” Levine said.
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