Showing posts with label Social policy.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social policy.. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Good news - COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act passes house and senate - goes to Biden's desk for signature.


From Congressman Joe Morelle's web site.

Numerous reports have shown that acts of hate against the AAPI community have risen around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to  Pew Research, nearly one in three Asian Americans have reported experiencing racial slurs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report by the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate also showed that hate incidents against the AAPI community are up nearly 75% since the pandemic began.

Specifically, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, would help the Department of Justice better respond to and prevent hate crimes by:

  • Working to fix reporting problems at the local level by requiring the Attorney General to issue guidance for the creation of online reporting mechanisms and the collection of data
  • Improving hate crime reporting by supporting the full implementation of the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), a system which allows law enforcement agencies to report hate crimes to the FBI.
  • Supporting law enforcement agencies that establish a policy on identifying, investigating, and reporting hate crimes; train officers on how to identify hate crimes accurately; develop a system for collecting hate crimes data; and establish a hate crimes unit within the agency.
  • Strengthening the Attorney General’s ability to ensure law enforcement grantees report on their progress reporting hate crimes and requires the Attorney General to collect and analyze the information to better mitigate hate crimes.
This legislation has also been passed by the U.S. Senate and will now be sent to President Biden for consideration.

Editor's note:
Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.

This is a time for celebration and thanks that there are people in our country who do the right thing in alignment with UU principles.

I sent Congressman Morelle a thank you card. Thank your congressman and senator who voted for this legislation as well.
In the senate, Hawley from Missouri was the only senator to vote against it.
The House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday to address the increase in hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, clearing the legislation for President Biden to sign.
The COVID–19 Hate Crimes Act passed by a 364-62 vote; all 62 votes against the bill were from Republicans. 
To see how the congresspeople voted click here.
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