BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 412|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 412
Author: Carter (D)
Amended: 3/23/09 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/9/09
AYES: Leno, Benoit, Cedillo, Hancock, Huff, Steinberg,
Wright
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 79-0, 5/4/09 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Hate crimes: nooses
SOURCE : California Narcotic Officers Association
California Peace Officers Association
California Police Chiefs Association
California State Conference of the National
Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
DIGEST : This bill makes it a misdemeanor to hang a
noose, knowing it to be a symbol representing a threat to
life, in order to terrorize a person who owns, occupies,
attends school at, is employed at, or is associated with,
the property where the noose is hung.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides that any person who
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places or displays a sign, mark, symbol, emblem, or other
physical impression, including, but not limited to, a Nazi
swastika on the private property of another, without
authorization, for the purpose of terrorizing the owner or
occupant of that private property or in reckless disregard
of the risk of terrorizing the owner or occupant of that
private property shall be punished by imprisonment in the
county jail not to exceed one year, by a fine not to exceed
$5,000, or by both the fine and imprisonment for the first
conviction and by imprisonment in the county jail not to
exceed one year, by a fine not to exceed $15,000, or by
both the fine and imprisonment for any subsequent
conviction. (Section 11411(a) of the Penal Code)
Existing law makes any person who engages in a pattern of
conduct for the purpose of terrorizing the owner or
occupant of private property or in reckless disregard of
terrorizing the owner or occupant of that private property,
by placing or displaying a sign, mark, symbol, emblem, or
other physical impression, including, but not limited to, a
Nazi swastika, on the private property of another on two or
more occasions, shall be punished by imprisonment in the
state prison for 16 months, two or three years, by a fine
not to exceed $10,000, or by both the fine and
imprisonment; or by imprisonment in a county jail not to
exceed one year, by a fine not to exceed $5,000, or by both
the fine and imprisonment. (Section 11411(b) of the Penal
Code)
Existing law provides that any person who burns or
desecrates a cross or other religious symbol, knowing it to
be a religious symbol, on the private property of another
without authorization for the purpose of terrorizing the
owner or occupant of that private property or in reckless
disregard of the risk of terrorizing the owner or occupant
of that private property, or who burns, desecrates, or
destroys a cross or other religious symbol, knowing it to
be a religious symbol, on the property of a primary school,
junior high school, or high school for the purpose of
terrorizing any person who attends or works at the school
or who is otherwise associated with the school, shall be
punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months,
two or three years, by a fine of not more than $10,000, or
by both the fine and imprisonment; or by imprisonment in a
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county jail not to exceed one year, by a fine not to exceed
$5,000, or by both the fine and imprisonment for the first
conviction and by imprisonment in the state prison for 16
months, two or three years, by a fine of not more than
$10,000, or by both the fine and imprisonment; or by
imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, by a
fine not to exceed $15,000, or by both the fine and
imprisonment for any subsequent conviction. (Section
11141(c) of the Penal Code)
This bill provides that any person who hangs a noose,
knowing it to be a symbol representing a threat to life, on
the property of another, without authorization, for the
purpose of terrorizing the owner or occupant of that
private property or in reckless disregard of the risk of
terrorizing the owner or occupant of that private property,
or who hangs a noose, knowing it to be a symbol
representing a threat to life, on the property of a primary
school, junior high school, high school, college campus,
public park, or place of employment, for the purpose of
terrorizing any person who attends or works at the school,
part, or place of employment, or who is otherwise
associated with the school, park or place of employment
shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to
exceed one year, and/or by a fine not to exceed $5,000 and
for a second or subsequent conviction, imprisonment in the
county jail not to exceed one year and/or by a fine not to
exceed $15,000.
This bill contains uncodified legislative findings and
declarations regarding the history of racial hatred and
murder connected with the hanging of nooses.
Comments
Hate Crime in California . According to the Attorney
General's (AG) 2007 report, "Hate Crime in California,"
there were 1,426 total hate crime events, which included
1,931 offenses, 1,764 victims, and 1,627 known suspects.
Hate crime events increased 9.2 percent from 1,306 in 2006,
to 1,426 in 2007. Hate crime offenses increased 13.5
percent from 1,702 in 2006, to 1,931 in 2007. The number
of victims of reported hate crimes increased 9.5 percent
from 1,611 in 2006, to 1,764 in 2007. The number of known
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suspects of reported hate crimes increased 0.9 percent from
1,612 in 2006, to 1,627 in 2007. Anti-black hate crime
events increased 15.3 percent from 432 in 2006, to 498 in
2007. Race/ethnicity/national origin hate crime offenses
have consistently been the largest bias motivation category
of hate crimes reported since and account for at least 60
percent of all hate crime offenses. Within this category,
anti-black hate crimes continue to be the largest bias
motivation accounting for at least 26 percent of all hate
crime offenses annually since 1998.
The Noose . In 1945, sociologist Oliver C. Cox defined
"lynching" as "an act of homicidal aggression committed by
one people against another through mob action for the
purpose of suppressing either some tendency in the latter
to rise from an accommodated position of subordination or
for subjugating them further to some lower social status."
(Cox, Lynching and the Status Quo (1945) 14 J. of Negro
Educ. 576, 576.)
As the NAACP said in its 2007 "State of Emergency" report:
"The hangman's noose is a symbol of the racist
segregation-era violence enacted on blacks. ?[It is] an
unmistakable symbol of violence and terror that whites used
to demonstrate their hatred for blacks." In analyzing the
number of lynchings in Louisiana alone from the post-bellum
period into the Jim Crow era, Michael Pfeifer found that
"[l]ynchers killed 263 persons, at least 219 of them black,
in northern parishes between 1878 and 1946." (Pfeifer
(2004) Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society,
1874-1947, at 15.) Another set of statistics reported that
between 1889 and 1931, 3,290 people were lynched in the
South, of whom 2,789 were black. (Tolnay, Beck & Massey
(1989) Black Lynchings: The Power Threat Hypothesis
Revisited, 67 Soc. Forces 605, 605-06.)
The symbol of this period in American history, the noose,
appears to be making a resurgence. A BusinessWeek study
from 2001 noted "many experts say they are seeing a
disturbing increase in incidents of [racial] harassment."
(Bernstein, Racism in the Workplace, Bus.Wk., July 30,
2001, at 64.) The study discovered noose incidents
occurring in large, diverse cities such as San Francisco
and Detroit, and reported that the Equal Employment
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Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had managed 25 noose cases in
the 18 months prior to the study, "something that only came
along every two or three years before." [Id. (quoting Ida
L. Castro, former EEOC chairwoman).] The BusinessWeek
study correlates with the findings from the AG's Hate
Crimes 2007 report that racial harassment using the symbol
of a noose is on the rise.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/19/09)
California Narcotic Officers Association (co-source)
California Peace Officers' Association (co-source)
California Police Chiefs Association (co-source)
California State Conference of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (co-source)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO
Anti-Defamation League
Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
California Association of Urban League Executives
California Communities United Institute
California Teachers Association
City of Lakewood
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Los Angeles Probation Officers' Union, AFSCME, Local 685
Riverside Sheriffs' Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author: "At the
request of the California State Conference of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
I have introduced this bill in response to recent incidents
of noose hangings at college campuses and other public
venues in our state. One hundred years ago, the NAACP was
founded in response to a then common practice of murdering
African-Americans by noose hangings. Just as they were in
the past, the recent noose hangings in California are
directly correlated with racial hatred and murder. This
kind of act represents a real threat to life and safety,
and it has terrorized many college students and residents
of our state. Hanging a noose is simply unimaginable,
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intolerable and a threat to public safety. It is important
that California use the full weight of the law to
discourage and punish noose hangers for threatening or
carrying out, an act of murder by noose hanging."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,
Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani,
Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Jeffries, Jones, Knight,
Krekorian, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza,
Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A.
Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas,
Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra
Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran,
Villines, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Huffman
RJG:mw 6/19/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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