ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota State Capitol may seem far removed from the drama playing out in Chicago over actor Jussie Smollett's report he was a victim of a hate crime.
But as that controversy played out in the media, it caught the attention of Rep. Nick Zerwas here in the North Star State. Rep. Zerwas will introduce a bill that, should it become law, would increase the penalties for those who falsely report hate crimes.
"False reports of hate crimes cause the next real victim's story to be questioned, and for people to be suspicious because of all the fakes," Rep. Zerwas told KARE.
It's already a misdemeanor to make a false report to police in Minnesota. The Zerwas bill would treat the fake hate crimes the same as gross misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a $3,000 fine.
So why treat a false hate crime report more harshly than other fake police reports? The Elk River Republican said it's because they have more impact.
"They’re creating this huge rift and division within our community, and causing law enforcement and public safety agencies to expend huge, huge resources to investigate these incidents and these crimes."
Smollett said he was beaten on Jan. 29 by two men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him during the attack. The two original suspects were released after questioning by police, and subsequently told detectives Smollett hired them to attack him.
Chicago Police said Wednesday that Smollett was now a suspect in the case. But the actor stood by his original account, and many of his supporters have defended him in social media.
Zerwas points to the local example of the hate crime hoax that riled the St. Olaf College in 2017, leading to sit-ins and protests. Weeks later, investigators revealed that the racist note left on a black student's car was actually a fake, planted by the purported victim in an effort to raise the broader issue of racist undercurrents on campus.
But critics of the Zerwas legislation point out such hoaxes are very rare compared to incidents of actual hate crimes, which are on the rise in Minnesota.
"I think this is a solution in search of a problem," Rep. Frank Hornstein, a Minneapolis Democrat.
"We should stay focused on the issue at hand, which is the increase in hate crimes and the fact these are underreported for very valid reasons.
Rep. Hornstein said he'll soon introduce a bill that will make it easier for police to detect and document hate crimes, so they can be tracked better in the future. His legislation would also encourage targeted communities to come forward with accounts of bias crimes.
"We want to encourage people to report hate crimes. Anything that moves us away from that is moving us in the wrong direction."
The FBI's most recent analysis of hate crimes showed the increased in Minnesota, going from 119 cases in 2016 to 146 cases in 2017. The same report showed that 310 Minnesota police agencies reported no hate crimes.
One of those agencies was the Bloomington Police Dept., even though that was the same year that white nationalists bombed the Al Farooq Islamic Center in that Minneapolis suburb.