INDIANAPOLIS — In April, DePauw University students were confronted by an apparent racial attack in which local juveniles spelled out the N-word with rocks in a nature park.
The incident sparked protests including the interruption of a book signing by actress Jenna Fischer. The juveniles' actions stunned many at the west central Indiana college where 32 percent of the students come from multi-cultural backgrounds.
DePauw University President Mark McCoy thought the incident could prove to be a barrier for graduates as they consider whether to stay in Indiana.
The events “left many of our students from marginalized groups feeling fearful, powerless, hurt,” he told a state legislative committee in October.
Prospective DePauw students, he said, were beginning to search a state's protection for classes, including race, ethnicity and religion among others, in making college choices.
Indiana is one of a handful of states without a bias crimes law. That will likely change during the upcoming Indiana General Assembly as more backers are gathering in the Legislature.
“The absence of a hate crimes bill in Indiana speaks more loudly than any of us would like,” McCoy told the October panel.
On Tuesday, McCoy emailed his faculty and staff and other Indiana college presidents urging them to consider joining a recently-formed coalition, Indiana Forward, in supporting a bias crimes bill.
The Indiana Forward campaign has one goal: Get bias crime legislation passed into law, said Mike Leppert, who is managing the effort. He said, "We will last longer than just this one session if we're not successful. But our plan is to be successful this year."
The coalition is seeking a law that allows court judges to enhance criminal sentences when a crime is motivated by bias towards a person's characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sex, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation.
The legislative discussion is zeroing in on whether bias motivation should be an aggravating factor or treated as an enhancement of a criminal conviction.
As an aggravating factor, a judge could impose a harsher sentence but could not exceed the maximum number of years of incarceration allowed by law. Enhancements would require a jury to find that a defendant committed a hate crime.
The FBI found an increase across the country in hate-motivated crimes in the past year, ranging from a 15 percent increase for race-related crimes to a 34 percent increase in crimes against people of the Jewish faith.
Gov. Eric Holcomb announced support for legislation on July 30, two days after the discovery of anti-Semitic graffiti, including two Nazi flags and two iron crosses, on a wall at a Carmel synagogue. A 20-year-old Cloverdale man was arrested on federal charges involving conspiracy to violate civil rights.
The incident drew national media attention.
"I think that it was a unifying event in that it let people sort of viscerally see what a hate crime does and how it affects communities," said David Sklar, Indiana Forward executive committee co-chair.
As with incoming college graduates, hate crimes can impact perceptions of business owners and the potential for jobs, Sklar said.
"When we talk about that economic development aspect, it demonstrates to a nation and to the world how a community reacts to these types of things when they happen," Sklar said. "And in that case it was very clear that Indiana does not necessarily have the rules in place to properly react to that crime."
Indiana Forward's partners include other alliances, the 100-member Indiana Alliance Against Hate and the 500-member Indiana Competes, along with businesses and colleges.
Indiana had a hate crimes law until the state's criminal code was rewritten in 1977. Arising from a growing battle with the Ku Klux Klan, the law barred Hoosiers from conspiring or organizing in order to disseminate malicious hatred by reason of race, color or religion.
Now, Indiana defines a bias crime as one committed by someone who injures a person or damages property "because of the color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation of the injured person or of the owner or occupant of the affected property."
Until recently, Republican legislators have argued that a hate crimes statute is in place. Subsection (c) of the state's sentencing guidelines gives a judge discretion in considering any aggravator when imposing a penalty. That enables judges to take bias motivation into account, some say.
In August, Holcomb issued a state employee policy barring harassment and employment decisions based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, sexual orientation or gender identity.