A Minnesota legislator said Wednesday that he would introduce a proposal to toughen the penalty for falsely reporting hate crimes, citing a high-profile reported attack on a gay black actor in Chicago that was recently called into question.
Rep. Nick Zerwas, R-Elk River, described the measure, expected later this session, as "a reasonable step to help deter individuals from filing false police reports and to make sure that we devote law enforcement's limited resources to investigating and prosecuting legitimate bias-motivated crimes."
Zerwas said he was motivated to bring the issue forward after recent reports that police believed "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett may have staged a January attack by two masked men shouting racial and anti-gay slurs. Smollett has denied that claim through his lawyers.
In recent days, Zerwas has written about the case in multiple posts on Twitter, describing it as part of a "recent rise in fake victimization" and a symptom of media bias.
"As news reports continue to emerge, it is becoming increasingly clear that the highly publicized alleged hate crime in Chicago last month was a hoax," Zerwas said Wednesday. "We need to send a message that similar hoaxes are not welcome in Minnesota as they only seek to divide us and distract from legitimate acts of bias-motivated violence."
Minnesota's current law makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly make a false report to law enforcement, and a gross misdemeanor to falsely report criminal police misconduct. Zerwas wants to make it a gross misdemeanor — punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a $3,000 fine — to falsely report a hate crime.
The proposal would face long odds in the Democrat-controlled house, where Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, D-Golden Valley, on Wednesday called it "an attention-getting bill from a member in the minority."
"I don't think we need to create a chilling effect on people reporting hate crimes, which if anything is underreported," Winkler said.
