LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — A group of Michigan lawmakers are working to update Michigan’s hate crime laws for the first time in 35 years. The Michigan Hate Crime and Institutional Desecration Act is set to be introduced this week in Lansing.
For many Jewish metro Detroiters, the chapel at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield is a safe space but more frequently, spaces like this are becoming the target of threats.
“Every morning literally, we get communication about other synagogues, other houses of worship that have had their synagogue desecrated or a threat in the community,” Temple Israel Executive Director Jason Plotkin said.
Plotkin says threats and vandalism against houses of worship are a constant conversation among colleagues, an issue three Michigan lawmakers are hoping to address.
“It was no question that this was why I was running. This was going to be at the top of the agenda," state Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, said. "Fighting against hate and extremism and political violence is really why I ran.”
Arbit, along with state Reps. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, and Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton Township, are sponsoring the Michigan Hate Crime and Institutional Desecration Act, new legislation set to be introduced this week that would make desecrating all houses of worship a hate crime. It would also strengthening current hate crime laws.
“The burden of proof, the threshold to proving a crime of bias in court is very substantial, but the penalties are so weak that prosecutors often don't want to use it,” Arbit said.
The current hate crime law was initially passed in 1988 and hasn't been updated since. The new package of four bills would specifically include sexual orientation, gender identity and people with disabilities.
“This legislation again just sends a strong message and provides our prosecutors another tool to make sure these crimes are being responded heavy handed and in an appropriate manner that they deserve,” Puri said.
The legislation also hits home for Puri, who is a Sikh American. His family’s former place of worship in Wisconsin was victim to a mass shooting in 2012 when a white supremacist killed seven people.
“It's vital that we stand up and take serious action,” Puri said.
"I'm very hopeful for legislation where people don't have to be victimized twice, when the actual atrocity happens and then when they go to a court to make sure it doesn't happen to others,” Grant said.
The three representatives plan to propose the legislation this week and expect committee hearings to begin in the next few months. They’ll find out then just how much support the bills will have from lawmakers, but it already has some support in the community.
“Anything that can be a deterrent to these kind of crimes, these kind of acts, whether it’s a synagogue, a mosque or any other house of worship, takes us a step further,” Plotkin said.
