The New Hampshire House passed a sweeping resolution against hate crimes Thursday, sending a symbolic message and overcoming objections that the language was overreaching and divisive.
In a 234-69 vote, members of the chamber chose to adopt House Concurrent Resolution 13, a three-page document outlining a series of hate-related transgressions in New Hampshire and the country and announcing a strongly worded policy of opposition.
Among the resolutionโs included examples: a national increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims; a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in higher education; harassment of transgender students in elementary schools; media reports of racial and ethnic hate crimes at New Hampshire universities; and the events of Charlottesville, Va., last year, in which a woman was killed during a white nationalist rally.
โResolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, that the state of New Hampshire … rejects hate-motivated crime as an attack on the fabric of the society of the state and the ideals of pluralism and respect,โ the document reads in part.
But amid the litany of named transgressions โ including reference to a swastika painted on the state Republican party headquarters in Concord last year โ one rang through louder than any: Last August, an 8-year-old boy of mixed race in Claremont suffered injuries to his neck after an apparent lynching attempt. The New Hampshire attorney general has completed an investigation; conclusions have yet to be released.
Rep. John Cloutier, D-Claremont, said itโs an incident that continues to shake the community. Speaking to support the bill, Cloutier said the resolution would help amplify issues that have confronted his town.
โClaremonters have woken up to something that a lot of Americans already understand: that racism and hate is not just a local Claremont problem, not just a New Hampshire problem, but an ongoing American problem that is not going to be solved overnight,โ he said. โWhile we have made some progress … we have a long way to go.โ
Others โ from both sides of the aisle โ delivered speeches to similar effect.
But some lawmakers said while they supported the cause, they thought the document was poorly executed. Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, said that the listed transgressions in the preamble did not encompass all affected communities and that the pointed language would serve only to divide.
Rep. Jim McConnell, R-Swanzey, went a step further, saying that in the three-page document โthere is no mention of … Muslim terrorism and Antifa.โ He and others advocated for a previously passed House resolution, House Joint Resolution 5, a four-line statement that condemned hate crimes but didnโt list examples.
But the chamber was undeterred, and the support for the document overwhelming.
Standing to address her peers, Rep. Latha Mangipudi, D-Nashua, spoke to her own experiences. An Indian-American who has served in local and state representative bodies for years, Mangipudi said sheโs experienced rising racial hostility recently.
These days, she says, some of her own constituents will tell her to leave the country โ to her face, walking along Main Street, or to her children.
โWhat do I tell my kids?โ she said. โWe brought them up to think they are citizens here. They were born here. They donโt know any different. And to just shrug it off as nothing โ itโs nothing serious. Thatโs just ignorance.โ
โThis is my community; this is my home,โ she continued. โAnd now I have this unsettling feeling: Do I belong here?โ
Passing the resolution would be a valuable, if symbolic, move forward, Mangipudi said.
โTake a step in the right direction,โ she said. โMake a statement that New Hampshire is better than that. And I can wake up a little more in peace.โ
(Ethan DeWitt can be reached at edewitt@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter at @edewittNH.)