In Long Beach, the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office and the Long Beach Police Department received a prize from the Anti-Defamation League for its role in combating hate. The office filed hate crime charges in all of the cases referred to its office. City Prosecutor Doug Haubert attributes the city’s success at prosecuting hate crimes to having trained officers who know what to look for.
“We handle so many cases so quickly, that unless the report itself or the officer noted that, ‘Hey this could potentially be a hate crime,’ it’s unlikely to go noted by the prosecuting office,” Haubert said.
Some organizations — including the California District Attorneys Association — are trying to make it easier for prosecutors to bring such cases, and to increase penalties.
Larry Morse, legislative director for the association, said it’s time to examine the laws on the books and determine whether they are adequate.
“We haven’t introduced many bills along that line because this Legislature has not been inclined to create any new crimes or to increase punishment for any conduct,” said Morse, former Merced County district attorney.
The DA’s association on Tuesday threw its support behind a bill by Democratic Assemblymember Jim Cooper of Elk Grove to increase penalties for some hate crimes. The group also opposed a measure to soften penalties for some robberies, suggesting the bills would “lessen the consequences for violent crime and would directly benefit the predators currently committing hate crimes against Asian Americans,” according to a statement from the association.
California does have a number of sentencing enhancements written into the penal code, such as adding time for a variety of crimes targeting victims on the basis of race, gender or bias. There’s also a law making a hate crime a standalone misdemeanor.
Since 1978, California has made it a capital offense to kill someone because of their race, religion or for another bias-related reason.
Gerstenfeld, the CSU Stanislaus professor, said the state has plenty of laws that aren’t being used that often, and the key to success with hate crimes prosecution is getting people to report them.
“If people don’t feel comfortable dealing with the police, nobody is ever going to be aware that these crimes happened,” she said. “Better training for police officers and prosecutors is also key.”
Lawmakers circle back
These are all things California lawmakers have pushed for in the past.
Improving reporting is one reason Assemblymember David Chiu is reintroducing his hate crimes hotline bill. He thinks it failed because of concerns over cost.
But that’s changed.
“It’s reached a point where we have to take action as a state, certainly as an Asian American,” Chiu said. “What we’ve seen in this past year has been horrifying and cries out for response.”
He is also co-author of a bill that would push law enforcement agencies to better track hate crimes. It follows a 2018 State Auditor report that found “underreporting and misreporting of hate crimes among law enforcement agencies.”
Chiu, whose parents immigrated from Taiwan, grew up in the Boston area in the 1970s. He said anti-Asian racism was a regular experience. He said good data is critical to understanding what minority communities often face.
“There are also many incidents of hate that don’t rise to the level of a hate crime, but are disturbing nonetheless and need to be documented and understood for us to consider other policies to address them,” he said.
California generally has strong laws meant to fight hate crimes, said Beth Holtzman, a lawyer with the Anti-Defamation League.
“The issue,” she said, “is with implementation.”
Graphics by Ben Christopher of CalMatters
For the record: This story has been corrected to reflect that the 2016 Anti-Defamation League award for combating hate went to the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office and the Long Beach Police Department.
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