Unfinished business of a hate crimes bill

Given recent events, many cities across the nation could finally see an ebbing of the massive protests that have paralyzed their streets.

But be prepared: It is entirely possible that Atlanta won’t be one of them. And it doesn’t take a Cassandra to see why.

Four Minneapolis police officers have now been properly charged in the death of George Floyd. Memorial services for this latest sacrifice to racial injustice are in process.

On the Georgia coast, two of the three white men accused in the death of Ahmaud Arbery appeared before a judge for the first time this week, 101 days after the 25-year-old African American jogger was slain.

Elsewhere, many exhausted cops, politicians and protesters will take the above news as a signal to stand down for the first time since Memorial Day weekend. But Atlanta has a hurdle to get past that other state capitals don’t.

In eight days, on June 15, lawmakers return to the state Capitol to finish out the last 11 days of a legislative session that was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Massive cuts to the state budget are on the agenda, forced by the economic downturn that has accompanied the coronavirus.

But just as important will be another piece of unfin

ished business — the passage of House Bill 426, a measure that would allow enhanced penalties for crimes committed against victims because of “race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability, or physical disability.”

The House passed HB 426 on March 7, 2019, with only six votes to spare. The Senate has yet to give the measure a first hearing. One year ago, the bill was significant as the first time either Republican-controlled chamber had approved protections for the state’s LGBT communities.

But HB 426 acquired new meaning, and new momentum, early last month as millions of Americans watched a leaked video of Ahmaud Arbery’s last moments at the hands of a father and son who had chased him through their neighborhood in a truck. The friend who recorded the incident on his cellphone has also been charged.

Days later, House

Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, called on the Senate to take up the hate crimes bill “with no delay and no amendments,” declaring passage necessary “to demonstrate that Georgia and Glynn County will not be tarnished by this act of evil.”

Georgia is one of four states in the nation with no hate crimes law.

Ralston repeated himself last week. “Georgia is better than this, and we aren’t going to be an outlier on this issue,” he said. “It would send such a strong message around the state and around the nation about where our values are.”

The leaders of the two most powerful business organizations in the state capital, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Georgia Chamber, quickly endorsed the speaker’s plan. They, too, repeated themselves this week, calling for “swift passage” of HB 426.

Only last Tuesday, James Dinkins, the president of Coca-Cola North America, sent letters urging passage of the bill to Ralston, Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan. The letter to Ralston made clear that the Coke executive wants the LGBT protections in the bill to remain.

Coca-Cola has quietly weighed in on social legislation before the General Assembly over the past few years, but it is rare for the North Avenue giant to walk point on an issue. It harkens back to the days of Robert Woodruff and Martin Luther King Jr.

Such pressure has been made necessary by mixed messages sent by the leaders of the state Senate who will determine the fate of HB 426.

Lawmakers will have a quick 11 days to decide.

Last week, Lt. Gov. Duncan, who presides over the Senate, said he supports passage of a hate crimes bill, but thought the current one could be improved. He wanted to see training requirements for law enforcement added, along with protections for victims who want to sue their persecutors.

One thing that Duncan didn’t demand was immediate passage of the bill. And on Thursday morning, state Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, a floor leader for Gov. Kemp, declined to give his GOP colleagues a deadline.

“The question is, are we able to get that done now, or is this something we’re tackling come January 2021? Time will tell. There is a desire to get this done and get this done right,” Strickland said. “If it takes us until January to get it done right, then that’s what we have to do. You don’t want something that’s going to be applied the wrong way in our courtrooms.”

Two points need to be made here: First, when Speaker Ralston demanded no changes to HB 426, he wasn’t just handcuffing Senate Republicans. He was putting a lid on Democrats who might want to add language to erase Georgia’s stand-your-ground law, or its statutes permitting citizen’s arrests.

State Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta, who is leading the hate crimes effort in his caucus, acknowledged the tension. “The bottom line is to make sure we get it passed, he said.

Secondly, it is well known that the perfect is often used to kill good measures in the state Capitol. The clock, too, is a weapon. Amending the bill would be adding to the time and effort needed for passage.

I will not ascribe motives, but state Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, did when I read Strickland’s comments to him. He’s the author of HB 426. “The Senate had the hate crimes bill for over a year without a single hearing. They should come clean. Any further delay or amendment now is only to defeat the bill,” he said.

Strickland and I spoke just as a seven-hour hearing got underway for Travis and Gregory McMichael, the father and son accused of Ahmaud Arbrey’s murder. A GBI investigator told the judge that the third man arrested, William “Roddy” Bryan, told him that Travis McMichael had uttered a racial epithet after firing three shotgun blasts into Arbery.

The GBI agent said there was evidence that Arbery had been struck by the truck the pair had used to chase him down. “I believe Mr. Arbery’s decision was to just try to get away, and when he felt like he could not escape, he chose to fight,” he said.

As I said, neither Sen. Strickland nor I knew of this testimony before we talked. But imagine, knowing what we know now, that the state Senate decides that a more perfect hate crimes bill can wait until January.

Protesters in Atlanta have had two weeks to perfect their craft, and CNN Center is only a short distance from the state Capitol. There is an element in the Legislature that would embrace that kind of confrontation. It is important that they don’t get their way.

As I was finishing up this piece on Thursday evening, I touched base with John Porter, chief of staff to the lieutenant governor. He added what was missing to Duncan’s statement last week.

The lieutenant governor wants to see a hate crimes bill passed before the Legislature adjourns this month, Porter said. And that is a good thing. Let’s see if the Senate that Duncan presides over can agree.