Justice Horn gives KCPD more power by pushing City Council to get tougher on hate crimes

(L-R) Edited cutouts of Kansas City LGBTQ+ Commission Chair Justice Horn and Police Chief Stacey Graves–and their affiliated logos–face each other. On January 11 2024, Kansas City’s City Council voted unanimously to enact ordinance 231032: a new ordinance that establishes hate crime sentence enhancements at the municipal level. Heralded as a bold step against LGBTQ+ hate, this move by City Council only strengthens our City’s abysmally-ranked police department, and furthers the falsehood that criminalization is a “solution” for ending hatred.& Ordinance 231032 makes criminal punishment more severe Under newly-passed Ordinance 231032, a hate crime sentence enhancement will be established at the municipal level and allow prosecutors to prove if an offense was motivated by bias. This means that this ordinance explicitly does not allow for charging hate crime as a sole offense and, instead allows prosecutors to stack charges against defendants. The penalty enhancement should someone be charged with a hate crime are as follows: Enhanced Fine: a minimum fine of $300 for the underlying offense Enhanced Penalty: a sentence enhancement of up to sixty [60] days Continuing Violation: each day’s violation constitutes a separate offense Ordinance 231032 was introduced to City Council on December 7 and proposed by the...