Tag: AB449

Our Major Hate Crime Bill Clears Assembly, Heads to Senate

By Greg deGiere, Civil Rights Advocate, The Arc of California

The most important hate crime bill of 2023 for people with disabilities and all Californians passed the Assembly 75-0 Thursday and is headed for an uncertain fate in the Senate. The Arc & UCP California Collaboration leads the diverse coalition sponsoring the bill.

AB 449 by Assemblymember Phil Ting passed after the Assembly Appropriations Committee accepted amendments proposed by the author to further strengthen the bill. It will require every law enforcement agency to adopt a hate crime policy with specific protocols guiding officers on preventing, reporting, and responding to hate crimes. As amended, it also will require the Department of Justice to review every law enforcement agency’s policy for compliance with the law.

If passed into law, AB 449 would be a huge step forward in combatting the rise in hate crimes in California, as detailed in the recent report by the Anti-Defamation League, “Hate In The Golden State”.

Major Hate Crime Bill Introduced, With Special Importance to People with Disabilities

By Greg deGiere, Civil Rights Advocate, The Arc of California

Assemblyman Phil Ting (D- San Francisco) last week introduced Assembly Bill 449 requiring every state and local law enforcement agency in the state to adopt a hate crime policy guiding officers to recognize suspected hate crimes when they see them.

Under the bill, the agencies’ policies shall instruct officers to consider whether the perpetrator was motivated by  bias against the disability of the victim. The bill also includes other provisions related to hate-crimes policy.

Anti-disability hate crimes are the invisible hate crimes. Federal statistics show that there are an estimated 40,000 anti-disability hate crimes per year, but law enforcement agencies report less than 0.4 percent of those to the FBI. In California, we’ve made some progress. But in 2021, California law enforcement agencies reported just 12 anti-disability hate crimes.

Assemblymember Ting’s AB 449 is a follow up to his AB 1947 of last year, sponsored by a broad coalition of civil rights and community groups led by the The Arc & UCP California Collaboration.

 

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