ATLANTA — With lawmakers saying they wanted to “improve” House legislation that establishes hate crime laws in Georgia, the Senate made only one tweak — adding police to a list of protected victims — in a compromise to garner Republican support.

A new version of the bill presented Friday evening, adds “first responders” to the groups of people protected from hate crimes.

In a party-line vote, five Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee opted to include “first responders” — police officers, medics and firefighters — in the bill that aims largely at protecting Black Georgians from hate crimes.

Outcry for the passage of the bill, House Bill 426, has intensified after the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick — an unarmed Black man chased and shot by three white men.

After the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis sparked nationwide demonstrations, Georgia protesters have included the passage of a hate crimes bill in the state among their calls for an end to police brutality.

But the Senate has sat on the House Bill that passed a floor vote last session — gaining mounting criticism from members of the House, social justice advocates and even the business community.

After sparring with the House over what Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan called a “solid start,” Senate committee members finally passed the legislation out of committee — with the added caveat that law enforcement is also included.

“It is imperative that we protect our law enforcement personnel that puts their lives on the line for use just as we do for these other categories of individuals,” Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, who authored the change, said.

Cowsert said that the change “improves” the legislation after House Speaker David Ralston called on the Senate to pass it with little to no changes.

Democrats voted against the amendment calling it a “poison pill.”

The bill has been a bipartisan effort on the House side of the Capitol. Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, and Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, the longest-serving member of the General Assembly, both sponsored the bill in the House.

Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, attempted to remove the protection for police saying that to equate a chosen occupation with immutable characteristics like being Black is a “slap-in-the-face” to individuals who are targeted on a regular basis.

“To me, it just really misses the moment to try to put an occupation in the same category as things that are intrinsic characteristics of individuals,” she said.

Her attempt to remove the change failed.

Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta, argued with Cowsert that the groups of protected individuals under federal law had to prove discrimination through policies not just individual actions.

Georgia also increased protections for law enforcement in 2017 under the ‘Back the Badge’ bill, he said.

Jones also noted that nearly all of the incidents that have spurred cries for police reform have been excessive use of force by law enforcement on Black people.

“You can’t justify attacking police officers because some make a mistake because if you do the entire social fabric breaks down,” Cowsert said. “Law and order is no longer in play and you’re in anarchy.”

The Georgia NAACP — which has led calls for the hate crimes bill to be passed — said Friday it no longer supports the legislation with the amendment.

“Under no circumstance should ANY legislator vote for a bill that adds protection to law enforcement, as they already are protected in the state code,” the organization said on social media. “You can choose to join law enforcement. You can’t choose to be Black.”

Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, Nikema Williams, called the added protection for law enforcement “insulting to the lives and families of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks.”


If passed in a full floor vote by the Senate, it will be sent back to the House for a new vote.