GREENFIELD — Town Council Treasurer Karen “Rudy” Renaud wants to send a message that hate crimes will not be tolerated in Greenfield, and has drafted an ordinance establishing local hate crime legislation.

The proposed ordinance would create a civil rights officer position within the Police Department and calls for guidelines for documenting hate crimes in town. If approved by Town Council, the ordinance would also establish repercussions on the local level for those found guilty of committing hate crimes.

“It fills in the gap of where the state law and the federal law doesn’t address these issues,” Renaud said. “I feel like it’s kind of on us, on a local level, to address them.”

Under the ordinance, the civil rights officer would immediately confer with the town’s Human Rights Commission after a hate crime is committed and appear at a public meeting within 48 hours to answer questions and provide a status update concerning the investigation. The officer would continue to attend commission meetings and keep the public updated until the issue has been resolved.

The proposed ordinance also states that anyone found guilty by the court system of committing a hate crime in Greenfield would be required to perform 100 hours of community service within a year from the time they were found guilty. The victim and the Human Rights Commission would choose the community service to be performed.

“The second part is the piece about restorative justice, and that’s what we don’t have here,” Renaud said. “If there is a hate crime, the prosecution is not on the town. It would be on the state or the federal government, depending on the kind of crime. If the person was found guilty, they would have to work with the Human Rights Commission and the victim to come up with community service they would do here in Greenfield. What the state and federal laws do are great, but there’s not really the community healing piece that I think this brings into it.”

She said the victims wouldn’t be required to face the perpetrators — only if they feel comfortable doing so. The Police Department and Human Rights Commission would be responsible for enforcing the ordinance and any person failing to comply with it could be fined up to $25 a day.

“It is important due to that fact that these crimes are committed because of the perpetrator’s hostility against the victim on the basis of perceived or real unchangeable characteristics — race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. In other words, absent the status of the victim as a real or perceived member of a marginalized minority group, there would be no crime,” Renaud said.

She added the civil rights officer, who would serve as the liaison between the community and the Police Department, would preferably come from a minority community, as that would contribute to a greater level of understanding.

Renaud said she decided to draft the ordinance after several racist and anti-Semitic incidents occurred in town.

In recent months, racist, digitally-altered photos of At-Large Town Councilor Penny Ricketts were emailed to town department heads and local businesses. The owners of Pierce Brothers Coffee Roasters also came forward to say their business has been the target of frequent harassment — including an anti-Semitic remark — by a neighbor who objects to the smell created by its roasting process.

The Appointments and Ordinance Committee will discuss the proposal during its meeting Wednesday evening, and depending on how people are feeling, Renaud said it may make it to the full council meeting later this month.

“If what we hear on Wednesday night is really far off from what we’ve written down, I will do a rewrite and bring it back to A&O in September,” she said.

You can reach Aviva Luttrell at: aluttrell@recorder.com
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