Jacksonville City Council rejects hate-crime legislation

A bill that would have toughened penalties for hate crimes in Jacksonville failed to win over council members Tuesday night.

With only seven of the council’s 19 members voting yes, the bill — named after Johnnie Mae Chappel, who was killed in a racist attack 60 years ago — died Tuesday evening.

Council members who voted against the ordinance cited concerns over First Amendment rights because, for one, it included penalties for hateful speech projected loudly enough to be heard nearby.

Before Tuesday’s vote, the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville held a rally on the steps of City Hall urging passage of the bill , which would have tripled fines and jail time for criminal acts proven to be motivated by hate, including littering, noise pollution and light projection.

At the rally, Kelly Frazier, daughter of the late civil rights activist Ben Frazier and president of the Northside Coalition, harkened back to Aug. 26, one year ago, when a gunman at a Dollar General store killed three people because of their skin color and left an entire community in grief.

“Our city and communities cried out and asked our elected officials to do something,” Frazier said. “Do something to show us that you care when something as tragic as this happens in our neighborhood.”

She said the shooting — along with antisemitic messages on buildings and overpasses, hateful graffiti on buildings and disturbing flyers in neighborhoods — are reminders “that not only is hate real, but dangerous.”

“This bill is more than a piece of legislation. It is a beacon of hope, a shield of protection and a testament to our community’s values. Our city has seen the devastating impact of hate one time too many.”

District 8 council member Jimmy Peluso, who introduced the legislation, echoed her plea from the council dais.

“If you’re going to be critical of this legislation, I understand that,” Peluso told his colleagues. “But I ask that you open your eyes and realize that this is a symbol of healing for this city and this community.”

Mandarin council member Michael Boylan, one of the bill’s supporters, said he had received an email urging him to vote it down.

He explained that he had introduced amendments to the bill in committee to make sure it would not be duplicative and would be “crystal clear” on when the law could be applied.

“I take very seriously the importance of protecting our freedom of speech,” Boylan said. “I believe we, as elected leaders of this community, have a responsibility to stand up to threatening speech — threatening speech. We all have to tolerate hate speech as an individual right, but not if it specifically endangers other citizens.”

But despite the tweaks to the bill and dozens of residents who showed up at the government meeting urging city leaders to approve it, it did not pass.

At-large council member Nick Howland, one of the 12 who voted against the legislation, rose to applaud the co-sponsors of the bill for pushing a conversation he said he learned from.

“What that did over the last several months was foster a community conversation about race and equality and justice. And I think we learn from community conversations like that,” Howland said. “The thing that I learned that was most compelling — and again, I think Councilman [Rahman] Johnson for bringing this up — was the story of Johnnie Mae Chapel. I researched the history of that story. I went out to the site where she was shot.”

He said he noticed there was a highway marker on new Kings Road and a small marker that says, “Drive safely in honor of Johnnie Mae Chappel.

“But there’s nothing telling the story,” he said. “Nothing that we can learn from.”

He said he is in the process of drafting legislation to put a historical marker there that does tell the story.

“Something that we can all learn from,” he said.

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