“A state too great to hate” – Hate crimes bill passes

The number of states without a hate crimes law has now dwindled to three. On Friday, Governor Brian Kemp signed House Bill 426 (HB 426), removing Georgia from the list of what had been only four states without a hate crimes law. Before getting to Kemp’s desk, the bill had to first be passed by the state Senate and the state House. Although the bill was successful in passing in both, it did not do so without opposition. HB 426 passed with a 47 to six vote in the Senate and a vote of 127 to 38 from the House.

“Today, we took an important, necessary step forward for Georgia,” Kemp said after signing the bill into law, according to a press release issued from the governor’s office. “We stood together as fellow Georgians to affirm one simple, but powerful, motto: Georgia is a state too great to hate.”

In a conversation with Houston Home Journal on Monday, Senator Larry Walker spoke about HB 426, praising the passing of the bill into law. “It was a historic measure,” he said. “We have a Republican led Senate that voted overwhelmingly bipartisan in support of this

legislation. And I believe we had only six no-votes in the senate. I was proud to support it,” added Walker.

When giving an overview of what the new law entails, Walker stated, “It allows for enhanced penalties for crimes against a person because of the color of their skin or their sexual orientation or their gender or their religion. The idea is, if you do something to somebody in order to terrorize the population or the group that they are a part of, it ought to carry additional penalties.”

The sentencing for the committed crime, Walker pointed out, is still up to the discretion of the judge, but the senator believes this measure was an important one and necessary to send a very clear signal that hate crimes won’t be tolerated in the state of Georgia.

“The lieutenant governor staked out a strong position on this early on and said that he thought that it was time for us to do this,” Walker revealed. “We actually had a hate crime law on the books that was passed in 2000, but it was ruled unconstitutional because it was considered too vague. So, it’s not like this is an issue that hadn’t been discussed before. But in Georgia, we want to be inclusive of people and kind to people, and we want to allow people to have liberty, justice and opportunities. I was proud to support it,” he repeated.

Walker admitted that prior to his voting, he had received a good bit of emails from his region (District 20) that voiced opposition to the bill. “Most of the emails that I received in favor of the bill were not from my district,” he added. The reasons that he was given from opposers in his district varied. “Some said you couldn’t get in people’s head, so how are you going to determine they did it out of hate for a group or not? Others said that there shouldn’t be any special protected class; everybody ought to be treated equally. They felt that a hate crimes bill automatically didn’t treat folks equally.”

While Senator Walker respected everyone’s stance on the matter, he said, “In my opinion, if somebody is part of a group that is espousing hate toward another group and they do a criminal act like vandalism or assault or whatever else to try and terrorize that group, I think that is a crime that does rise to a higher level of criminalizing, and it justifies some additional punishment. I voted my conscious on it, and since then, I’ve only had one or two negative comments made to me,” Walker noted. “People may be mad with me or feel differently about it, but if so, I haven’t heard from them yet.”

Walker believes that it is time for the divisiveness of politics to go and for our nation to become unified. To that regard, he said, “We need to go back to work and get our economy going. It’s time to focus on improving our education and get industry and create jobs.”

In a brief statement to Houston Home Journal, Representative Shaw Blackmon (District 146) expressed his vote of approval for the bill-turned-law as well.

“Thanks to our state leaders and their bipartisan efforts, we were able to add Georgia to the list of 46 other states that consider not only the act, but one committed out of hate, punishable behavior,” Blackmon said. “House Bill 426 sends an important message at a critical moment in history—that here in Georgia, we reject hate and all it represents.”

“I’m just proud of the lieutenant governor and the governor for leading on this,” Senator Walker emphasized. “I think, again, it was a historic day, and I believe that history will look favorably on my vote. I did a video conference the week before we went back to Atlanta (June 15),” Walker further shared. “I met with five or six African American pastors as well as Ms. Rutha Jackson (Houston County NAACP President). We talked about all this, and they expressed how important it was to them that we pass this bill, and that did weigh in on my decision. I’m of the Christian faith,” he asserted, “and I think Christ’s main commandment was to love the Lord with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. I’d like to think that I do everything I can to practice that.”

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