CALIFORNIA Attorney General Rob Bonta has vowed to pursue broader and concrete measures to improve the reporting system on racial-related hate crimes.
Bonta recently hosted a roundtable with Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) press in the state to provide updates on his statewide initiatives in line with the celebration of May as AAPI Heritage Month.
As the first Filipino American attorney general of California and the second Asian American to occupy the post after now Vice President Kamala Harris, who served between 2011 to 2017, Bonta underscored the need to improve the way hate crimes are being handled, especially in California, a state home to nearly 6 million AAPIs.
A former state assemblymember, Bonta was first appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom as attorney general in March 2021, before being elected to a full term last November 2022. He was sworn in and delivered his inaugural address in Sacramento last January 6.
During the discussions with AAPI reporters, the state’s chief legal counsel said that amidst the alarming and continuing rising level of anti-Asian hate crimes over the past years, his office is very keen on implementing some definitive short-term and long-term programs to address these concerns.
He said short-term solutions may involve an immediate and effective way to resolve a hate crime as it happens.
“We need accountability for hate crimes when they occur and in my view charging hate crimes as hate crimes when elements are there and making sure that there’s an appropriate and proportionate accountability for those who commit hate crimes,” Bonta said.
According to Bonta, providing relatively prompt help to assist hate crime victims could also be a part of a short-term scheme.
“We provide victims with the services that they need to heal in the way that they need for them to heal, could be trauma form of care, it could be culturally competent care, could be in-language care like programs and services that allow and…
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