Advocates Call For Hate Crimes Legislation, Again

The Central Indiana Alliance Against Hate asked state lawmakers for a hate crime law Tuesday. Similar legislation has failed to pass, each year, for nearly a decade. READ MORE: Lawmakers Put Burden On Opposite Chambers In Bias Crimes Debate So far, in this legislative session, two bills would include bias as a consideration for sentencing. Indiana Youth Groups Kyle Casteel expressed his frustration with the states lack of progress. Here we are for one more session asking these same leaders to finally join the 45 other states in the union who already have comprehensive hate crimes protections on the books, Castille says. And though its far from the first time weve had this debate, I know Im not the only person whos not quite sure it will be the last. A bias crimes bill passed the Senate in the 2016 session but died in the House. In 2017, the bill never made it out of the Senate after religious conservative groups protested. Anita Joshi is a pediatrician and Hindu from Crawfordsville.