NEW YORK, April 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- American
Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomes the announcement of bipartisan
reintroduction of a bill in the House of Representatives and Senate
to improve hate crimes reporting and governmental responses to
hate. The Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer National Opposition to
Hate, Assaults, and Threats to Equality (NO HATE) Act, led by
Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA),
Judy Chu (D-CA), Fred Upton (R-MI), and Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
in the House, and Senators Richard
Blumenthal (D-CT) and Jerry
Moran (R-KS) in the Senate, seeks to close gaps in the
reporting of hate crimes across the nation.
Joining AJC in advocating for the NO HATE Act are more than 50
Asian American organizations that signed onto a letter organized by
AJC's Asia Pacific Institute. The letter cites the uptick in
hate crimes against Asian Americans and the importance of measures
within the bill that will help law enforcement "more accurately
assess and ultimately reduce bias-motivated crime."
The FBI is required by law to gather data on hate crimes
annually, but the information is undeniably inaccurate. Victims
inconsistently report hate crimes, and law enforcement is not
always equipped to identify crimes as motivated by
bias. Because reporting is voluntary, today only 13 percent of
the nation's law enforcement agencies
submit any hate crimes data to the FBI. More than
70 cities with at least 100,000 residents failed to contribute to
the latest FBI Hate Crimes Statistics report or reported zero hate
crimes.
Jews remain the most targeted victims of religiously-motivated
hate crimes in the FBI reports. AJC's 2020 State of Antisemitism in
America report found that 76 percent of those who were the target
of an antisemitic attack or remark did not report it. This, coupled
with inaccurate and incomplete hate crimes data to the FBI, limits
federal, state, and local governments' and institutions' abilities
to address hate crime related issues – the scope, location, and
severity of the problem.
Since the coronavirus outbreak over a year ago, the spread of
disinformation about and harassment of the Asian-American community
has dramatically escalated. "The repugnant harassment and
discrimination directed at Asian Americans is all too familiar to
the Jewish community, and we are obligated to take action to oppose
it," said AJC's Asia Pacific Institute (API) Director Shira Loewenberg. "AJC will always stand
united with our friends in the Asian American community against
racism, xenophobia, and violence in any form."
The Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act will incentivize state and local
law enforcement authorities to improve hate crime reporting by
making grants available, to be managed through the Department of
Justice. The grants, authorized from existing funds, will provide
resources such as law enforcement trainings, the creation of
reporting hotlines, increased resources to liaise with affected
communities, and public educational forums on hate crimes. In the
116th Congress, the House twice passed the NO HATE Act as a
provision in coronavirus stimulus bills, but neither were passed by
the Senate.
View original
content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ajc-welcomes-announcement-of-bipartisan-introduction-of-jabara-heyer-no-hate-act-301265470.html
SOURCE American Jewish Committee