By: Esther Gowin
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Fayetteville City Council unanimously passed a new ordinance last week that hopes to further increase inclusivity in the community.
This ordinance allows the city prosecutor to give harsher charges for crimes that are committed with the intent to harm others based on their perceived race, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation or disability.
City Attorney, Kit Williams, said the ordinance was presented by councilperson Teresa Terk, because Little Rock recently passed a similar measure.
“She asked me to look into it and I looked at their (Little Rock’s) ordinance and the law,” said Williams. “I decided that we could do that, so I drafted up this ordinance.”
Williams said this ordinance is unique because none of the other ordinances that the city has passed can have the possibility of imprisonment.
“The city can have one of its ordinances punished with jail time is if it is incorporating a state law crime. We found actually sixteen different misdemeanors under state law that carried some punishment that all had the possibility of punishment determined by the judge.”
This means that instead of only receiving a fine for certain misdemeanors, certain instances will be punishable by an amount of jail time.
Several instances of vandalism have occurred over the past couple months. In September, a mural reading “Love Unites Us” was defaced to say “Love Weakens Us”. Earlier this month a campaign poster for Kyle Smith, running to keep his seat for Ward 4 of the city council, was defaced saying “No Vote Queer”.
Williams said these instances show a reason to have this new hate crime ordinance.
“The city counsel wanted to make a statement against this sort of hate crime.” Williams said. “The city of Fayetteville wants to be as welcoming and tolerate and helpful to all of its’ citizens as much as possible.”
According to Williams, Arkansas lawmakers will look at a new hate crime bill in the 2021 legislative session.