The Michigan Hate Crime and the Institutional Desecration Acts were introduced in April by Rep. Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield). The state House passed the bills in June, sending them to the Senate, where they were referred to that body’s Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety.
And there they sit.
JeDonna Dinges is more than frustrated. For her, this is deeply personal.
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The neighbor was not charged with a crime.
“Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy could not prosecute my former neighbor, because of the way that the ethnic intimidation law is written,” Dinges said. “Prosecutor Worthy said that the ethnic intimidation law in Michigan has no teeth.”
So in April 2021, Dinges mobilized a working group to develop a framework for a new law. Attorney General Dana Nessel gave input, Dinges said, and the bills are supported by the Prosecutor’s Association of Michigan.
The holdup: An onslaught of misinformation that the bills’ language either protects only those in the LGBTQ community, or totally misrepresents what the bills would do.
After the bills passed the house, back in June, a Fox News headline blared a misreading of the bills’ purpose, claiming that the new law would allow the state to fine any individual who intentionally uses the wrong pronouns for a transgender person. Arbit and two other state reps faced recall petitions for their support of the bills.
“You have to understand that there’s a group of people who are really making a concerted effort to oppose any legislation that even touches the LGBTQ community,” Arbit says. “This bill absolutely touches the LGBTQ+ community, and that’s an important dynamic and part of it. But this was never about one community. And that’s the narrative that is so important to me to quash in its entirety.”
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The law didn’t protect her
Back in 2021, someone came onto Dinges’ property, leaving a full gas can in her closed recycling bin. Dinges suspected the neighbor, who had been antagonistic before, but police said nothing could be done, and advised her to install a security camera in the side yard where the bins are stored. After the camera went up, her neighbor hung the KKK flag, saying it was to protect his privacy. He later replaced the flag with a drop cloth provided by the Grosse Pointe Park police.
Dinges says she and her daughter endured months of torment, trauma and new threats from the neighbor that he would hang the flag again. She eventually moved from her home of more than a decade.
Dinges doesn’t want that to happen to anyone else.
We all deserve this kind of protection
Arbit is banking his tenure in office on getting the bill passed.
“It’s why I got involved in politics in the first place, to take on rising hate, violence and extremism,” Arbit says. “And strengthening Michigan’s hate crime law is my top priority in the Legislature.”
That includes making sure there’s protection for a client of Dinges at her Ferndale clothing boutique, whose Black transgender daughter was murdered.
“She and I were discussing House Bill 4474, and she said, ‘I wish they’d created something like that to protect my daughter.’ And I said, ‘This would’ve protected your daughter,’” Dinges says. “I want (all) people to know that they’re covered under this legislation. I don’t want someone to be targeted and think, ‘Oh, I’m not Black, this won’t protect me, ‘I’m not gay or ‘I’m not handicapped, this won’t protect me.
“It is designed to protect Black people, white people, Jewish people, Christians, handicapped people, the elderly, and developmentally challenged people. Those lawmakers whose job it is to protect us, we’re asking them to do their jobs. We’re not asking for any special favor.”
Ahhh, Dinges caught my attention further at “disabled.” So, this bill protects me as a Black man who’s also disabled?
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So imagine there’s an argument at a Ford Field gate that escalates into a racial incident because I’m walking too slow, or taking too much time with my ticket.
These bills would give me protection if there were an intimidation incident against me, regardless of whether I was targeted because of my race or infirmity.
What happened to common sense?
So forgive me if I’m a bit peeved that a protection for me and others may be overlooked by our state leaders.
Certainly I understand how the political game works: Few want to get pinned down to a controversial issue.
But putting Michiganders’ needs first is what officials are elected to do.
At some point, common sense should prevail.
HB 4744 was crafted so that people who intimidate those like Dinges are prosecuted.
“It’s disheartening that in 2023 when Black people are under attack as we were reminiscent of the sixties,” said Brigitte Maxey, who lives in Virginia but who served in the working group. “It’s not to that level, but when you listen to the rhetoric going around, when you see the people in Buffalo shopping at a grocery store, he decided to go kill Black people. When you see things like that happening around the country, and then you see Michigan has a remedy and politicians are withholding the (solution) for their own selfish reasons, that’s very frustrating.”
Taking up the right issue over being re-elected. That’s such a novel concept in today’s politics.
It’s just the only people literally hurting are the people.
Darren A. Nichols is a contributing columnist at the Free Press. He can be reached at darren@dnick-media.com or his X (formmerly Twitter) handle @dnick12. Contact the Free Press opinion page: letters@freepress.com.
(*) This article is heavily biased against the KKK flag, but it’s purpose on AltrightTV.com is to show that we as Klansmen/Klanswomen should be allowed to show our pride in who we are. I’m White, and I don’t like the BLM flag, but they have the same right to fly theirs, as we should ours.
* ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/10/15/why-is-the-michigan-legislature-letting-a-hate-crime-bill-wither-away/71154919007/
