Rallying for hate-crimes legislation on the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg on Monday, state Representative Napoleon Nelson (D-Glenside) rebuked founding father Benjamin Franklin.
The representative observed that a Franklin quote etched into a wall 40 feet from him read, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Nelson claimed to “very much respect and revere Ben Franklin” but added he had no use for the defense of freedom made by the Continental Congress delegate and Pennsylvania Assembly speaker who helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. The lawmaker suggested that the founding statesman’s words lack relevance in a world in which Gregory Bowers shot 11 people dead at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 while others have committed similarly senseless crimes. Jury selection in Bowers’s trial began Monday and several legislators and activists marked the occasion by gathering at the Capitol to support hate-crime policy.
“As we say in our community, you know, sometime’s [Franklin’s] privilege is showin’ just a bit,” Nelson said. “‘Cause I’m not sure what it means to look for just a little bit of temporary safety when I think about, and as we commemorate, those congregants who were gathering for Shabbat in Pittsburgh or if I think about those who were together for Bible study in Charleston [SC] [or] little black girls in a church in Birmingham [AL]….”
He went on to equate Franklin’s pro-freedom sentiment with calls for hatred and violence.
“When hate crimes go unreported and unchecked, the privilege of liberty is just merely an illusion that is used to get away with literally murder,” he said.
Nelson wrapped up his remarks with another swipe at Franklin and a call for new hate-crime measures.
“It is time that we act in this body and in this House to make sure that [Franklin’s] words stay on the outside of the building but in the inside of the building we understand that there cannot be liberty without safety,” Nelson (pictured above) insisted. “And there is no safety without our essential liberties to be who you are. It is time that we pass this hate-crime legislation right now.”
According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, Pennsylvania is one of 44 states with a statute enhancing penalties for “crimes motivated by race, religion or ethnicity.” Numerous other states’ statutes as well as federal law include language covering gender, sexual orientation and disability. Alongside Representative Dan Frankel (D-Pittsburgh), Nelson is sponsoring a package of state House bills to strengthen the commonwealth’s existing law.
One bill would increase civil penalties for those who target people based on ethnicity, gender, sexuality or disability; another would provide training to law-enforcement professionals on dealing with cases of ethnic intimidation; another would provide for training about and reporting of incidents in educational settings; and a fourth would require hate-crimes offenders to complete diversity classes and allow community groups to submit impact statements before a defendant’s sentencing.
In a memorandum describing their proposals last December, the representatives wrote that the state saw 255 hate crimes reported in 2021, more than in any year since Pennsylvania began tracking such violations in 1997.
“It’s long past time for this commonwealth to use every tool out there to deter and identify these crimes and to stop them before they start,” Frankel said at Monday’s rally. “That is how we stand against hate. That is how we help our communities thrive and celebrate and share their gifts and joys to the world.”
Despite his lamentation of rising violence in recent years, Frankel has sometimes voted against state legislation to toughen law enforcers’ efforts against illegal gun use or possession. A year ago, he opposed a bill to enable the state attorney general to initiate criminal proceedings for certain firearm-related crimes in Philadelphia, a city where District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) has been lax in prosecuting both violent and nonviolent crimes.
Some legal scholars, such as Briana Alongi who authored a 2017 Pace Law Review on hate crimes laws, contend that such measures lead to “unintended consequences… including constitutional violations.” Therein, she determined that available data “disproves the theory that hate crime laws reduce or deter future hate crimes” and “determine[s] that hate crime legislation is not cost-effective.”
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Napoleon Nelson” by Rep. Napoleon Nelson. Background Photo “Pennsylvania Capitol” by Ad Meskens. CC BY-SA 3.0.
