SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A diverse group of California leaders joined forces Wednesday to address the problem of hate crimes.
The Act Against Hate Alliance hosted an inaugural ceremony at the State Capitol.
Information compiled by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program found the number of hate crimes committed in California has risen substantially from 2018 to 2021. Hate crimes are defined as crimes committed motivated by race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity.
The FBI says 65% of hate crimes against people in California in 2020 were racially-motivated.
"We just have too hostile of an environment, generally, now. People don't want to seem to get together and work on problems and solve problems anymore,” said candidate for state controller, Lanhee Chen. “I think that has spilled over unfortunately to the Asian-American communities and spilled over to acts of hate and violence against Asian-Americans and we shouldn't stand for it."
The Act Against Hate Alliance was co-founded by former Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff and is made possible by funding from the California State Library Stop The Hate Initiative.
“As a country, we will come together and we will find a solution to this,” said Huff. “This is all about Californians pulling together and stomping out hate.”
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