Representative Jon Riki Karamatsu
Written Remarks
Senate Bill 2456, Senate Draft 2, House Draft 1
Relating to Harassment (Harassment by Impersonation)
Thursday, April 3, 2008
I rise in support.
Since the 2005 Legislative Session, I have been working on bills to update our harassment and stalking laws to include “computer communication.” In addition, I have been working to create a new law to discourage impersonation. The reasoning is that more people are being harassed, stalked, and impersonated on the Internet. It has already happened to a couple of my friends.
Senate Bill 2456 is the companion to my House Bill 2319, which proposed to add computer communication as a form of nonconsensual contact in the offense of harassment by stalking. However, Senate Bill 2456, Senate Draft 2, House Draft 1 has changed to include the policy goal of discouraging impersonation, which is from another bill of mine, House Bill 2320. Impersonation can cause irreparable damage by ruining one's reputation and even placing one in fear of his or her safety.
The Judiciary Committee went further by creating a new definition of “harassment by impersonation.” Under this definition, “A person commits the offense of harassment by impersonation if that person poses as another person, without the express authorization of that person, and makes or causes to be made, either directly or indirectly, a transmission of any personal information of the person to another by any oral statement, any written statement, or any statement conveyed by any electronic means, with the intent to harass, annoy, or alarm any person.” Harassment by impersonation would be a petty misdemeanor.
Thank you.
JON RIKI KARAMATSU 