Legislation to crack down on illegal street racing in Georgia by criminalizing promotions on social media and confiscating cars from repeat offenders passed out of the General Assembly Monday.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Josh Bonner, R-Fayetteville, would make it a misdemeanor for anyone in Georgia who organizes, promotes or participates in street racing, also called drag racing.
Drivers caught participating in drag races would have their driver’s license suspended for up to one year for the first offense and three years for a second offense. A third drag-racing offense would see their license revoked. Misdemeanor charges and fines would also be involved as part of the punishment.
Drag-racing drivers who have been convicted three different times could also have their vehicle confiscated unless it is a family car that would lead to financial hardship. In that case, the vehicle’s title would have to be transferred to another family.
The crackdown measure on drag racing was pushed by Gov. Brian Kemp as part of his legislative priorities on crime matters including toughened penalties for human traffickers and criminal gangs. It echoed a separate drag-racing bill sponsored by Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur.
The measures came as city and state officials in the metro Atlanta area also seek a crackdown after complaints of rampant street races in the city and surrounding communities.
Bonner, who is one of Kemp’s floor leaders in the state House of Representatives, said earlier this month his bill targets organizers and promoters of drag races in order to “nip it in the bud.”
“People are being invited, social media is being engaged to get folks into an area to actually participate in this,” Bonner said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 17.
The state Senate passed the bill by a 46-3 vote on Monday after clearing the House by a 130-39 vote earlier this month. It now goes to Kemp’s desk for his signature.
Bonner’s bill faced some pushback from defense attorneys who questioned what difference the tougher penalties would make since local police already have a tough time arresting drag racers. Opponents also worried someone could have their car confiscated if it was being used by another person for drag racing.
“A study committee would provide an opportunity for all the stakeholders to contribute to a solution without defaulting to using our criminal legal system as a remedy,” said Mazie Lynn Causey, policy advocate for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, at the March 17 hearing.
Legislation to expand state-funded scholarships for special-needs students to attend Georgia private schools cleared the General Assembly Monday.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, passed nearly along party lines in the Senate in the face of critics who called it a workaround for controversial private school vouchers.
The bulk of Gooch’s bill aims to make special-needs scholarships available for students with a wide range of conditions including autism, Down syndrome, behavioral impairments and drug or alcohol abuse.
Students would have to be enrolled in Georgia public schools for at least a year unless they were adopted children, come from military families or faced challenges with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A contentious part of the bill that would have allowed students to secure special-needs scholarships with a doctor’s note was scrapped last week. Opponents argued savvy high-income families could have taken advantage of that provision via doctors who might falsify diagnoses.
“This bill is more narrowly defined to the advantage of the public school system at their request,” Gooch said on the Senate floor Monday. “Those concerns that some of you have from your school boards have been identified and addressed.”
The bill passed by a 30-18 vote in the Senate Monday after squeaking out of the House last week by the barest of margins. It now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.
Gooch and other supporters dismissed the notion scholarships would be harvested by wealthy families that game the system, stressing the focus is on boosting educational opportunities for special-needs children in Georgia.
Opponents likened Gooch’s bill to school voucher plans that divert tax dollars from K-12 public schools, putting a drain on tight resources for state-funded schools in favor of private schools that tend to have more money per student.
“Families with the resources, the know-how and who live in proximity to private schools will be the beneficiaries of the expanded eligibility, while rural and working-class taxpayers will be left footing the bill for a program whose ultimate cost we can’t even accurately tabulate,” Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said earlier this month.
The speedy passage and signing of controversial Republican-brought legislation overhauling Georgia mail-in and early voting has drawn a federal lawsuit and the arrest of a Democratic state lawmaker.
The sweeping 98-page bill hashed out by top Republicans in the General Assembly cleared both chambers Thursday afternoon and quickly gained Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature in an early-evening ceremony held behind closed doors at the state Capitol.
That decision led to the arrest of Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta, by Capitol police officers for knocking on the door to Kemp’s office, an episode that was caught on video and widely circulated on social media. She faces felony charges on charges of disrupting legislative proceedings and violence toward police.
Park’s arrest, which prompted swift condemnation from Democratic leaders and supporters, came as opponents of the omnibus bill readied a lawsuit aimed at blocking the election changes on grounds they would violate federal voting-rights law and the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit, filed by several Democrat-aligned voting groups including the New Georgia Project and Black Voters Matter Fund, echoes criticism from opponents who have argued the bill’s passage would result in curbing election turnout in Black and low-income communities.
“Collectively, these challenged provisions not only impose severe and unconstitutional restrictions on the voting rights of all Georgians, but they also disparately impact Black voters and effectively deny them an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process and elect candidates of their choice,” the lawsuit claims.
Among dozens of changes, the bill requires stricter voter ID rules for mail-in ballots, bans people from handing out food and drink to voters waiting in line outside polling places and halts absentee ballot applications from being accepted within 11 days of an election.
It also allows state officials to take over county election boards for poor performance, which Democratic leaders and voting-rights advocates argue could give Republicans a back-door way to influence local election operations in many counties.
Additionally, the bill requires local election officials to hold two Saturdays of early voting and give counties the option to hold poll hours on two Sundays, marking expanded hours that Republican leaders say will give Georgians more access to the polls.
Republican state leaders have dismissed accusations the bill, sponsored by Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, would reduce voter access or benefit their party’s ticket in Georgia. They have insisted the election changes aim to shore up voter confidence after the 2020 elections spurred unfounded fraud claims.
Kemp, who signed the bill about an hour after its final General Assembly passage, batted back at Democrats’ attempts to cast the bill as a form of voter suppression akin to discriminatory tactics of the Jim Crow era.
“Contrary to the hyper-partisan rhetoric … the facts are this new law will expand voting access in the Peach State,” Kemp said in a video speech shortly after signing the bill.
“Georgians will no doubt soon be overwhelmed with fancy TV ads, mailers and radio spots attacking this common-sense election reform measure. … The truth is ensuring the integrity of the ballot box is not partisan [but] it’s about protecting the very foundation of who we are as Georgians and Americans.”
The governor’s speech was interrupted briefly by the arrest of Park, a Black lawmaker who drew comparisons to civil rights movement heroes the late Congressman John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. as officers forced her out of the Capitol and booked her into the Fulton County Jail. She was released hours later.
Many observers and critics including highlighted the irony of a Black lawmaker being arrested over a bill that has been slammed as an echo of old segregationist laws and practices in the state.
“While Kemp signed the most restrictive voter suppression bill seen since Jim Crow, authorities outside unjustly arrested a Black legislator and charged her with two felonies,” the Democratic Party of Georgia said on Twitter. “This is the civil-rights fight of our generation.”
Meanwhile, Republican officials in Georgia and outside the state mustered to defend the election bill against the lawsuit filed in the Atlanta-based U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, slammed Democrats’ “false narrative” on the election bill and said her organization “look[s] forward to defending this law in court.”
“Democrats can lie and spin about the bill all they want, but the real question should be: ‘Why are Democrats so terrified of a transparent and secure election process?’ ” McDaniel said in a statement.
Deadly shootings at three Atlanta-area spas earlier this month have prompted Democratic lawmakers of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent to file bills aimed at multi-lingual training for law enforcement and delaying gun purchases.
The measures from state Reps. Bee Nguyen, Sam Park and Marvin Lim and Sens. Sheikh Rahman and Michelle Au – all Democrats representing parts of metro Atlanta – will need to hop rides on bills already moving in the General Assembly before the legislative session wraps up on Wednesday, March 31.
The lawmakers sponsoring those bills and others have called for bolstering support for Asian American Georgians in the wake of the March 16 shootings at two spas in Atlanta and one in Cherokee County that left eight people dead, including six Asian American women.
“Together, we mourn the senseless loss of life from those so cherished, so important and so loved by their families and friends in the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities,” the five lawmakers said in a joint statement.
“We look to our history, and where this country has been, and we look forward to the change we need to see. As AAPI legislators in the Georgia Senate and House, we are committed to not only drawing attention to the issues our communities face, but enacting meaningful change through legislation to address them.”
Two of the measures, sponsored by Park and Rahman, would require gun sellers to wait five weekdays before clearing firearms purchases or face a felony charge with possible prison time for violating the delay time.
Those measures aim to stave off future rushed purchases of guns by dangerous persons such as the suspect in the recent spa shootings, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, who police say bought his weapon the same day he went on the killing spree.
Gun restrictions habitually face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled state legislature where the Second Amendment’s right-to-carry rules rank high on the list of conservative priorities to preserve.
Already, lawmakers are close to final passage of a bill to make it easier for gun owners from outside Georgia to have their carry permits accepted within the state.
The measure, which has drawn backlash following the spa shootings, passed the House largely along party lines and is awaiting Senate floor consideration.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, said on the House floor last month its intent is partly to allow gun owners from outside Georgia to “enjoy our wonderful state while they’re enjoying their Second Amendment rights as well.”
Two other bills, sponsored by Lim and Au, would create an officer-training course for police focused on responding to calls and general outreach in non-English speaking communities to bolster relationships between those communities and law enforcement.
Another two bills, sponsored by Nguyen and Rahman, would set up statewide language translation services for 911 operators to help curb communication issues for non-English speakers during emergencies.
Typically, legislation filed this late in the annual General Assembly session has no hope of passing unless it is tacked onto other bills that have already advanced in both chambers via the legislature’s stringent vetting process.
Any proposals in the bills brought in response to the spa shootings that are added to other still-alive measures would likely first face scrutiny in committee hearings before moving further, according to Georgia House Speaker David Ralston’s office.
Some lawmakers have shown support for backing the proposals with two days of committee hearings left before the session’s ending next Wednesday including Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, who said recently she will push for passage of the measure prolonging wait times for gun purchases.
“It is our responsibility as legislators to take concrete action to prevent future tragedies,” Jackson said on Twitter.
Jackson joined other Democratic co-sponsors on the bills from the metro Atlanta area and elsewhere, including Reps. Zulma Lopez, Pedro Marin and Becky Evans as well as Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler and most Democratic lawmakers in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the spa shootings this month prompted broad calls for the admitted gunman to face charges under the state’s recently enacted hate-crimes law, which adds penalties for crimes motivated by a victim’s race, color, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, sex, gender, or whether they have a physical or mental disability.
Authorities have not yet divulged whether Long’s motive in the shootings involved alleged hate crimes. Cherokee County officials earlier this month said Long claimed he targeted Asian-run spas to purge a sex addiction that he sought to satisfy at those spas.
That information has spurred some observers to dismiss characterizing the shootings as hate crimes.
Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White, challenged Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ recent assurances the spas were operating legally, adding that the shooter’s and victims’ races should not matter.
“The reality here is this person shot people and all lives matter regardless of race,” Thompson said March 22 on the Senate floor.
Thousands gathered outside the State Capitol to protest police brutality and racial injustice as lawmakers met for the 2020 legislative session on June 19, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
A move to put tight limits on the ability of local governments in Georgia to reduce police budgets in the wake of nationwide protests last summer passed in the state Senate on Thursday.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, has sparked heated debate in the General Assembly amid efforts by Republican leaders to bolster support for law enforcement and a bid by Democratic lawmakers to push changes to Georgia’s criminal justice system.
House Bill 286 would forbid cities and counties from cutting the budgets of most police agencies in the state by more than 5% over a five-year period, excluding times of economic trouble that demand budget cuts across the board from local governments.
The bill follows last summer’s protests against police brutality and racial injustice that rocked cities across the U.S., including Atlanta, and spurred calls from criminal-justice advocates to trim public spending on police in order to fund other areas such as education, social services and mental health.
Those protests also sparked reaction from Republican leaders to double down on support for law enforcement, particularly to oppose what conservatives called “defund police” efforts that became a main issue in the 2020 election cycle.
Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, who carried Gaines’ bill in the Senate, said Thursday the chamber should not “sit idly by” after the city councils in Atlanta and Athens nearly passed budget cuts for their police officers recently.
“I think everyone sees the things going on around the country,” Robertson said from the Senate floor. “What this does is prevent the citizens from being caught up in the politics.”
The bill passed 36-15 vote in the Senate, with some Democratic senators voting in favor, and now heads back to the state House of Representatives for final passage. It cleared the House last month 101-69 nearly along party lines.
Critics called the funding restrictions a power grab by the state over local governments that would stall efforts to fund other areas like mental health, housing and education as ways to boost more community-oriented policing and keep people from landing in jail.
However, several Democrats including Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, joined Republicans in backing the budget-cut restrictions on grounds local police need more funding for training in de-escalation tactics and mental-health response, not less.
“We need and we support public safety officers that are well trained to respect and manage difficult situations as best they can,” Sims said.
Robertson, a retired major with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, has sponsored a separate measure in the Senate that would make it a felony to damage property or injure someone during a protest and hold city and county governments liable for not quelling rowdy demonstrations.
He has also sponsored another measure that would create a new driver’s education course on how to interact with police officers during traffic stops in Georgia.
Those measures come as lawmakers close in on passing a bill to repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law following the high-profile killing of Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick last year.
