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Senate Bill 64, authored by Senator Thomas J. Umberg (D-Santa Ana), aimed at addressing recent increases in hate crimes, passed the Senate Public Safety committee March 28.
Senate Bill 64 proposed to expand search warrant procedures to apply to misdemeanor hate crimes. Under existing law, misdemeanor hate crimes are currently barred statutorily from a judicial search warrant. Collecting evidence to prosecute in hate crime cases proves to already be difficult. This burden may create a perverse incentive to elevate charges to a felony hate crime, when a misdemeanor would be the more appropriate charge.
“It’s hard to believe given the rapid rise in hate crimes in recent years, but these numbers may actually be underreported as victims encounter the justice system and learn the threshold for felony investigation of their case,” said Senator Umberg, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “SB 64 provides our law enforcement agencies with another vital tool to investigate hate crimes in California and help our communities feel safe and protected.”
Senator Umberg further testified that “hate crimes are not always intended to target an individual, but may be committed in order to send messages of fear to a larger community.”
According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, anti-Asian hate crimes have increased by 339%, surpassing their record numbers from 2020. With cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles showing increases in the number of hate crimes both committed and reported to law enforcement, the need to help vulnerable communities and address this crisis is exponentially growing.
In a Hate Crimes report released by the County of Orange, there were 398 reported hate crimes and incidents in Orange County in 2021. Within the span of five years from 2017 to 2021, hate activity increased 165% in Orange County alone. 60% of these reported hate crimes and incidents were motivated by race, ethnicity, or national origin bias. Around 33% of these reported hate crimes & incidents occurred in a public area such as on public transportation, in communal spaces such as parks, or on streets. In 2021, the OCDA initiated or directly received through referral 39 cases through referral for hate crime consideration. Since January of 2019, the OCDA’s Office has prosecuted more than twice the number of hate crimes that were prosecuted by prior administrations in the previous 25 years.
This is not Senator Umberg’s first attempt to address hate crimes. In 1989 as a federal prosecutor in Orange County, Senator Umberg tried a case involving white supremacists who burned a cross on a Black family’s lawn. He went on to win a conviction in this case, becoming one of the last major cross-burning cases in the county. During his time in the Assembly, he went on to pass a bill that made the act of burning a cross a state crime with a three year penalty.
SB 64 passed the Senate Public Safety Committee with a 5-0 vote and will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee in the coming weeks. The fact sheet for SB 64 is attached for additional information.
