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Senate approves bill to make lynching a federal hate crime after nearly 100 years of failed attempts

Elise Viebeck Washington Post

After nearly 100 years of failed attempts, the Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to make lynching a federal crime.

Sponsored by the Senate's three African-American members, Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Cory Booker , D-N.J., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., the bill would ensure that lynching triggers an enhanced sentence under federal law like other hate crimes.

"This has been a long arc, a painful history and a shameful history in this body," Booker, who has been mentioned as a possible 2020 presidential candidate, said on the Senate floor. "At the height of lynchings across this country affecting thousands of people, this body did not act to make that a federal crime. . . . At least now, the United States Senate has now acted. One hundred senators, no objections."

Booker introduced the bill with Harris, another possible presidential hopeful, and Scott following what Harris described as 200 previous attempts by Congress to pass similar legislation.

"Lynching is a dark and despicable aspect of our nation's history. We must acknowledge that fact, lest we repeat it," Harris tweeted after the bill passed.

The NAACP says lynching emerged in the late 19th century as a "popular way of resolving some of the anger that whites had in relation to free blacks." About 3,450 black people were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, accounting for 73 percent of the total number of people lynched.

Only five states had no lynchings during that period, according to the NAACP.

The Senate bill defines someone guilty of lynching as "willfully, acting as part of any collection of people, assembled for the purpose and with the intention of . . . [causing] death to any person." The crime could be punished by a sentence of up to life in prison.

Seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynching between 1890 and 1952, the bill said.

The measure was introduced in June 2018 and unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in October. A companion bill from Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., was introduced in June.

The Senate's presiding officer during the vote was Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., whose previous expressions of pride in the Confederacy came under scrutiny this year after she said she would sit with a supporter in the front row of a "public hanging."

Hyde-Smith defended the remark as an exaggerated show of friendship. Critics said it alluded to hanging.

Appointed to the Senate, Hyde-Smith successfully ran for election.

First published in The Washington Post

Above is from:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-senate-lynching-hate-crime-20181219-story.html

More than 250 Illinois laws take effect Jan. 1. Here's what you need to know.

More than 250 Illinois laws take effect Jan. 1. Here's what you need to know.

More than 250 new state laws are set to take effect Jan. 1, 2019. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Mike RiopellChicago Tribune

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Some take on serious issues such as the safety of children, sexual harassment or synthetic marijuana that led to multiple deaths in 2018. Another abolishes a task force on farmers markets that hasn’t met in two years.

In all, more than 250 new state laws take effect Jan. 1. The final batch of new laws imposed under outgoing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner run the gamut from technical corrections in laws that will have little effect on people’s daily lives to requiring parents of young children to keep them in rear-facing car seats longer.

An even busier year could be on the horizon in Springfield with Democratic Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker set to take over Jan. 14 and a legislative wish list that includes legalizing marijuana and sports betting. But first, here’s a sampling of Illinois’ new laws for 2019.

Guns

State lawmakers and Rauner tangled over several gun control efforts sparked by the deadly school shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school and the downtown killing of Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer.

What was approved in the end?

The state created a 72-hour cooling-off period for people who want to buy firearms, expanding a requirement that already applies to handgun sales.

A new law requires schools to conduct an active shooter drill observed by law enforcement within 90 days of the start of the school year.

And hunters can wear blaze pink, not just blaze orange, for safety.

Transportation

Children in 2019 will have to ride in rear-facing car seats until they’re 2 years old, weigh 40 pounds or are 40 inches tall, making recommendations from child safety advocates into Illinois law.

Not following the new rules could land a driver a $75 fine for the first violation, and $200 for each one after that, according to the Illinois State Police.

State law already required drivers to use a “child restraint system” for children younger than 8 years old, but it didn’t specify which way the car seat had to face.

“There’s always been some confusion out there,” said Tara Devine, a personal injury attorney with the law firm of Salvi Schostok & Pritchard. “This at least provides consistency and clarity for pediatricians, the public and manufacturers.”

A different new law will require the Illinois secretary of state to include information about the so-called Dutch reach method of exiting a parallel-parked vehicle in its “Rules of the Road” pamphlet and ask questions about safe driving around cyclists on its written tests.

The Dutch reach method instructs drivers to use their right hand to open the door of their vehicle, basically physically forcing them to look behind to see if there is an oncoming cyclist or vehicle that could cause an accident or injury.

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment complaints and how to address them was a continuing story in Illinois government and politics amid the national #MeToo movement. The new year means the Illinois General Assembly in March will get a new top watchdog, a job that came under increased scrutiny amid a flood of sexual harassment complaints at the Capitol since late last year.

But lawmakers directed some of their attention on the private sector, with a new law requiring companies that want to do business with the state or qualify for certain tax breaks to provide a copy of their anti-harassment policies

And a different new rule says that anti-harassment training must be part of the continuing education needed to renew a professional license.

Law and order

Statewide this year, at least four people died after ingesting “fake weed,” which refers to plants or oils with chemicals added that are meant to mimic the effects of marijuana. The drugs in those cases were laced with brodifacoum, a form of rat poison that prevents blood from clotting normally.

Lawmakers approved a new law aimed at preventing manufacturers of synthetic marijuana from skirting laws banning the substance often sold and branded as “Spice” or “K2.” It bans all types of synthetic cannabinoids instead of just specific formulas. It’s a “catch-all” approach designed to prevent manufacturers from circumventing laws that only ban specific chemical combinations. Manufacturing or delivery of those substances would carry two to five years of prison time and fines of as much as $25,000. Possession may result in at least one year in jail.

Other new laws include exempting nursing mothers from jury duty and requiring every Circuit Court building to provide a dedicated lactation room.

Odds and ends

A state law that takes effect Jan. 1 gives DuPage County authority to dissolve its independent election commission, a move made after it had trouble tallying results of the March primary election.

Another change replaces references to “chairman” in the elections code to the gender-neutral “chair.”

And 2018 means the end of the Farmers Market Task Force, a group that last posted an agenda to meet in February 2016. A new law abolishes it.

Now, a new law for 2019 creates the Illinois Route 66 Centennial Commission, a group intended to get ready for the road’s 100-year anniversary in 2026.

Chicago Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski contributed.

mriopell@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MikeRiopell

Above is from:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-illinois-2019-new-state-laws-20181226-story.html