Group calls for laws that allow stronger penalties on hate-crimes

VALPARAISO -- Hate crimes send a chilling message beyond victims, and laws are needed to ensure that authorities do not write them off as mere pranks, an Anti-Defamation League spokesman said.\nIndiana is one of five states without legislation allowing prosecutors to enhance penalties for bias-motivated crimes, said Adam Schupack, associate director of the greater Chicago offices of the Anti-Defamation League.\n"We think it's important government acknowledge these crimes have a disproportionate impact on the community," Schupack told The Times of Munster for a Monday story.\nHate- or bias-motivated crimes are defined at the state and federal levels as offenses committed against a person or property motivated by a bias against the victim's race, religion, disability, national origin, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.\nThis type of bias has been suspected in several criminal cases across northwest Indiana this year, including:\n• Someone painted an offensive racial term and posted a cross at a Valparaiso apartment complex in October\n• Six bullet holes were discovered in July in the copper dome of the Michigan City Islamic Center in Pine Township. Doors, windows and a spotlight also were damaged.\n• An obscene racial term was found scrawled in February on the home of a Munster, Ind., family from India. The month before, the family's vehicle blew up in their driveway.\n• Also in February, a 15-year-old Hobart High School freshman was charged with spray-painting racial epithets and a swastika near the home of a black resident in the city. The resident told police her telephone line also had been cut in the past.\nThe size of the problem is not known. Law enforcement agencies are required to \nreport suspected bias cases to the state and federal governments, but there are no teeth in the laws to ensure compliance, Schupack said.\nVictims of these crimes also are hesitant to come forward, he said. Sixteen suspected hate crimes have been reported statewide so far this year, and 51 were reported last year, said 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten, an Indiana State Police spokesman.\nThere were 8,380 hate crimes reported across the nation during 2005, down from 9,035 the year before, according to the most recent statistics provided by the FBI.\nThe Anti-Defamation League called the 2005 federal figures "clearly incomplete," pointing out that police agencies in New York City and Phoenix were among thousands that failed to report.\nBursten said bias-related incidents account for a very small percentage of the total number of crimes committed. He questioned the need for special hate-crime legislation, saying police already investigate the underlying motives in these cases.\nState Rep. Duane Cheney, D-Portage, said a hate-crime law would have a tough time winning approval in the conservative Indiana General Assembly, although he would support such a measure.\n"I believe we have a duty to send a message that it is morally wrong on its face," he said of hate crimes, "especially in a nation where we claim to be welcoming to all"