Jacksonville City Council member Terrance Freeman | News4Jax
Published on May 20, 2024 at 5:42 pm
City Council member Terrance Freeman is opposing a proposed hate crime law in Jacksonville, calling it unnecessary and insulting to him as a Black man.
The bill could triple fines and jail time for people who commit hate crimes. Council member Jimmy Peluso said the legislation that he and five other council members signed onto needs to be part of Jacksonville law because hate crimes have “terrorized” many locally.
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“This is something that our city needs to tackle on all fronts,” Peluso said. “We have seen attacks and hate against all sorts of different groups — religion, race, creed, color and orientation. They have all happened in this city, and we have data to show that. To leave any of them behind; that’s not what caring for your community is about.”
But Freeman, in a news release Monday, said the bill “disingenuously seeks to leverage our emotions for political purposes” and would do nothing to address issues the city faces.
“Instead of keeping our community safe and doing police work, our officers would spend valuable time deciding which speech is or is not ‘hate speech,'” Freeman wrote. “There are also unknown repercussions to the First Amendment — in which the city will likely face litigation, diverting taxpayer dollars from other pressing needs.
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“Current state law already punishes those who commit crimes motivated by hate and prejudice. Jacksonville does not need an unnecessary law to tell us about the dehumanizing nature of hate speech and its corrosive effects.”
Netween 2020 and 2022, a massive increase in hate crimes have been investigated and prosecuted in Florida, including 24 reported to the FBI by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the Jacksonville bill says.
The bill addresses several classes of crimes including noise, littering, disruption of public order, and unlawful signs and projections. It says fines or jail penalties under those ordinances can be tripled against anyone convicted of “expressing, or attempting to promote, animosity, hostility or malice against a person or persons or against the property” because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age or disability.
Peluso disagreed that the bill represents politcal posturing.
“This bill is not pandering to any political affiliation or alliance by any means,” he said Monday. “This bill is about how we have had neighbors in neighborhoods terrorized by certain groups. It has taken us a very long time to finally recognize how bad it is, and now we can finally do something about it.”
The bill is co-signed by Reggie Gaffney Jr. and fellow council members Ju’Coby Pittman, Rahman Johnson, Tyrona Clark-Murray and Matt Carlucci. Many of them discussed it the day before it was filed, standing a block from the Dollar General store on Kings Road where three people were shot to death in late August in a racially motivated shooting.
Other recent hate crimes include racist leaflets left in neighborhoods and an antisemitic message projected onto the Jaguars’ stadium as well as a Downtown apartment building and later onto the headquarters of CSX.
Peluso pointed to City Council’s approval of a bill earlier this year that prohibits the projection of unauthorized signs or messages onto public or private buildings without the owner’s permission. Peluso thanked Freeman for his work on that bill but said a stronger law is needed.
“With the projectors, that was great. But now we are going to put real penalties behind individuals and groups that are doing things with a real hateful motivation behind it,” Peluso said. “We did it because we have unfortunately seen those acts in our city. This is a bill that will react to real pain that our communities have felt.”
Freeman wrote that he led the charge on the legislation that “stopped bad actors from using private property to display hateful and antisemitic messages.” The local bill resulted in the Florida Legislature passing similar legislation that addresses jail time and fines that could be enhanced if a credible threat of violence is uncovered, he said.
“However, this new legislation proposed by Councilman Peluso is government overreach that would create unintended consequences,” Freeman wrote.
“The people of this city are good and decent people trying to build a better life for themselves and their families. They do not need their elected officials to virtue‐signal so those politicians can get a good headline,” Freeman wrote. “At best, this bill is cheap political pandering. And frankly, as a Black man, it is insulting.”
The bill faces a number of hearings before a final version is done. Peluso said he will not “fast-track this — it needs to be properly explained to folks.” The bill could advance to a final City Council vote in June.
