LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky's GOP-controlled legislature overturned Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of the "Safer Kentucky Act," allowing it to become law.
Although the law seeks to combat crime through increased penalties, some community leaders in Louisville fear it will do more harm than good. House Bill 5 aims to create a safer community by changing the policies on criminal offenses, but it leaves community activist with concerns that it's targeting people who are experiencing poverty or homelessness.
"We are looking at criminalizing people who are homeless just because they sleep in a car," Chanelle Helm, strategic coordinating organizer for Black Lives Matter - Louisville, said. "We're looking at criminalizing parents just because they don't have the court dates for their children."
The 'Safer Kentucky Act' includes multiple changes on criminal offenses that some activists like Helm believe should be their own amendment.
"It's an omnibus crime bill," Helm said. "What we mean by that is it increases penalties that already exist. For example the car jacking law. That now is a specific law instead of being an amendment law to a larger piece of legislation."
On Friday, state legislators overturned Beshear's veto. During the legislative session, Republicans said crime is high in the state and creating harsher punishments to violent crimes like the "Three Strikes Law" is necessary.
A state GOP House representative asked questions like, "How many times can you burn down a house?"; "How many people do you get to rape?"; "How many people do you get to assault with a deadly weapon?"; "How many people do you get to kill before we put you away forever?"
"When something happens is not when we should be finding a solution," Helm said. "We should be making sure that if we see these things take place concurrently that we need to find proactive solutions."
Helm said funding shouldn't go towards punishments but rather to assisting the issue.
"Many of the crimes that folks have presented to us are pretty much poverty crimes and this just adds to that toll," Helm said.
As HB 5 becomes law, Helm said their organization will be keeping a close eye on its impact.
"We also want to build out a task force that looks at this bill and just monitors it throughout the years as we amend it and get rid of some of the deadly provisions that are there," Helm said.
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