Alliance pushes for stronger hate crime laws
Under current statute, Holocaust Museum vandal could only be charged with property damage, museum’s executive director says
Triggered by the recent vandalism at the New Mexico Holocaust Museum, the Jewish and Black communities have formed an alliance to pressure the state Legislature to increase the penalties for hate crimes.
Creation of the alliance was announced in separate letters from organizations released to the Journal late Thursday.
The vandalism at the Holocaust
Museum in Downtown Albuquerque occurred July 30, when someone shattered a large window, behind which was a mural of a 1960s civil rights march. The vandalism was timed just as the televised burial of civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis was being held in Atlanta.
“An attack on one, is an attack on both; and is an attack on the whole community,” Rabbi Rob Lennick, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, said in his statement. “This should not be dismissed as an attack on property. It was an attack on people and reflects the continuing reality of hate crime right here.”
Lennick said the alliance was organized to “vigorously support effective hate crime and domestic terrorism legislation for our state,” and it was calling upon “all citizens of New Mexico to stand together against all forms of hate speech, violence and crime.”
Holocaust Museum executive director Leon Natker said under current law, if the perpetrator who vandalized the museum were caught, “they could only be charged with property damage.”
The museum, he said in his statement, stands united with the NAACP and the Jewish Federation “in calling on our elected leaders to make it a priority to address hate crimes in the state of New Mexico at the next legislative session.”
The letter from NAACP Albuquerque president Harold Bailey said the organization was “greatly offended” by the vandalism at the
Holocaust Museum, adding that the attack “was meant to be a hate crime message.”
Bailey said the NAACP is aware of attacks on Jewish, Asian and Muslim properties within the last year. Most recently, he noted, “an elected public official from Otero County called for Blacks who kneel during the playing of the national anthem at NFL football games, to go ‘back to Africa.’ When is enough, enough?”
Together, the alliance and the citizens of New Mexico “will work with legislators to craft stronger hate crime legislation.” And those state leaders who fail to support this effort, said Bailey, “will be made known to the public.”