Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, will once again seek hate crimes legislation during the 2005 Legislature. This has become an annual rite for Litvack — one that has always ended in failure and frustration. That trend has to end once and for all.

It's time the Utah Legislature finally endorsed a bill that creates enhanced penalties for people convicted of bias crimes.

The Deseret Morning News remains entrenched in the belief that Utah needs a constitutionally sound, enforceable hate-crimes law. Recent events in Utah have only deepened our resolve.

Hate has reared its ugly head in Utah on several occasions this fall. Within the past two weeks, someone spray-painted a swastika on car belonging to a Jewish family that lives in the Capitol Hill area. Earlier, a billboard advertising a white supremacist organization was erected near Salt Lake Community College's South Campus. It has since been removed. Rep. Litvack's photograph and contact information was posted on the organization's Web site, referring to him as "a Jewish lawmaker." Shortly thereafter, a person attempted to throw rocks at the windows of his home. Others have reported seeing banners on freeway overpasses with racist messages.

It's time to send the message — through an enhanced penalty for people who attack others as a message of intimidation to entire groups — that hate is not welcome in Utah.

Last week, the state Sentencing Commission unanimously endorsed Litvack's bill, which includes compromise language crafted with Sen. James Evans, R-Salt Lake. The bill would enhance by one step the sentence of those convicted of a bias crime.

The commission's rationale for supporting enhanced penalties is that people who commit crimes of bias are generally more violent than offenders who commit crimes for other reasons. Moreover, prosecutors statewide do not use Utah's existing law because it requires proof that a person's civil rights have been violated.

Bias crimes may be committed against individuals, but, by their nature, they cut a wider swath in society. Litvack, who is Jewish, said the recent incident involving the swastika was deeply disturbing to him. "I can't tell you what an impact that has had on me, as a person who is also Jewish, and I don't even know (the victim)," Litvack told members of the Sentencing Commission. "It just has a ripple effect. You all understand that."

We do, indeed. The Legislature needs to take a stand against this brand of hate by giving prosecutors the tools they need to punish people who commit such crimes.