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We had four big advances last week in our long campaign to protect people with disabilities from crime, including abuse, neglect, sexual assault and hate crimes:
- Governor Brown signed our major bill to begin upgrading law enforcement agencies’ formal policies that guide their officers’ actions on hate crimes.(http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1985)
The upgraded policies are to include information on how to recognize anti-disability hate crimes and a plan to remedy the under-reporting of these disability-bias crimes, which we believe are the most under-reported category of hate crimes.
The bill, AB 1985, was carried by Assemblymember Philip Ting, sponsored by the Arc & United Cerebral Palsy California Collaboration and Equality California, and supported by the Anti-Defamation League, the California Association of Human Relations Organizations, the California Commission on Ageing, the California Council of Churches IMPACT, CAIR-California, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Feminist Majority Foundation, MALDEF, the NAACP, and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
- The Legislature passed the 2018-19 state budget including $45,000 for the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to update its model for the law enforcement agencies’ hate crime policies. Assemblymember Ting and Senator Nancy Skinner took the lead to secure the funds at the request of us and the other civil rights groups.
Our next step is to coordinate the civil rights groups to work with POST to assure that the model policy meets the needs of people with disabilities and all Californians who are at risk of victimization by hate crimes.
- Assemblymembers Kansen Chu and Al Muratsuchi announced they will hold a hearing in August on the state auditor’s May 2018 report, Hate Crimes in California: Law Enforcement Has Not Adequately Identified, Reported, or Responded to Hate Crimes. (https://www.auditor.ca.gov)
We initiated the audit last year by organizing the civil right groups to seek it. Chu, the Assembly Select Committee Hate Crimes chair, won approval of the audit request by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, chaired by Muratsuchi.
The audit points to a broad agenda of actions by the Legislature, the Department of Justice, POST, and all law enforcement agencies. We plan to work with the civil rights coalition and those agencies to support these actions and others we believe to be necessary.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee passed our bill to clarify that people with disabilities are protected by the elder and “dependent adult” and “dependent person” abuse, neglect and sexual assault laws regardless of the fact that they live independently. The bill also repeals unintendedly insulting language that equates “dependent adults” and elders with children. (http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1934&search_keywords=dependent+adult)
The bill, AB 1934, is being carried for us by Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer and is supported by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors; Association for Regional Center Agencies; California Alliance for Retired Americans; California Commission on Aging; California District Attorneys Association; Congress of California Seniors; National Association of Social Workers; and Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman.
It passed the Senate committee 7-0 after passing the Assembly 66-0. It goes next to the Senate Public Safety Committee.
The Arc has long been a leader in the fight to protect people with disabilities from crime and violence. In recent years, the Arc & United Cerebral Palsy California Collaboration has emerged as a key leader of the civil rights coalition fighting hate crimes.
Greg deGiere, Civil Rights Advocate, The Arc of California