Sarasota state lawmaker wants to classify ‘political violence’ as a hate crime

SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) – A state lawmaker from Sarasota wants political violence to be considered a hate crime. This comes in the wake of dangerous political rallies that have injured or killed people nationwide.

Republican State Representative Joe Gruters has had enough of this “hyper-partisanship.”

“My thing is nobody should ever be in fear of being attacked because of who they believe, what they believe, who they support,” said Gruters.

In response, Gruters has filed a bill that would make political violence a hate crime.

Right now in Florida, hate crimes are crimes motivated by these characteristics:

race/color
gender/gender identity
religion
ethnicity/ancestry/national origin
sexual orientation
advanced age
mental/physical disability
homeless status

Hate crimes receive tougher penalties than other similar crimes and Gruters wants to add “political affiliation” to that list.

“In the time and the environment we’re living in, what we’re seeing, my goal is to add just an additional deterrent to try and prevent these attacks from occurring,” said Gruters.

But, some Democrats feel this effort is all for nothing.

Skip Parish, with the Sarasota Democratic Party, says this is a topic that should be handled by Congress, not on a state level.

“Whatever someone’s feelings are on politics governs whether or not they feel it’s a crime or not. So, that’s the difficulty of it,” said Parish.

“He’s a state representative and this is a federal crime…I think the sentiment may be accepted, but the methodology needs to be a bit different. He should go to his congressional representative or delegate,” Parish added.

Gruters insists this bill is meant to help everyone.

“You don’t want to stifle political activism on either side and have people afraid to do that,” said Gruters.

The legislative session begins in January. If this bill passes, it will take effect in July.