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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	June 8, 2020 03:52 PM
From:	Senator Vincent J. Hughes
To:	All Senate members
Subject:	False reports of "criminal activity" based on race or ethnicity

In the near future I plan on introducing legislation to make it a crime to make a false report of a crime to law enforcement based solely on the alleged race or ethnicity of the alleged perpetrator. For the past week, people and communities across the Commonwealth have marched in protest of the killing of unarmed black and brown people throughout the nation.  Unfortunately, more often than not, police are brought into these situations by someone reporting “criminal activity.”   Being black is not a crime.   Being brown is not a crime. Under my proposed legislation, an individual who reports that “criminal activity” based solely based on the race or ethnicity of an individual will be considered filing a false report under Title 18.  An individual who files a false criminal report based solely on the race or ethnicity of an individual would be graded as first degree misdemeanor. Please join me in sponsoring this legislation.

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