On the one-year anniversary of enactment of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, the Department of Justice last Friday announced a series of actions to deter and confront hate crimes and other bias-related incidents, including:
• Issuing new guidance with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Releasing grant solicitations for programs to create state-run hate crime reporting hotlines and to support community-based approaches to prevent and address hate crimes.
• Hiring the Department’s inaugural Language Access Coordinator.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Deputy Attorney Lisa O. Monaco, Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm, and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta announced these new initiatives at an event at the Justice Department commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Attorney General’s memorandum on improving the Department’s efforts to combat hate crimes and hate incidents and the enactment of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes and Khalid Jabara-Heather Heyer NO HATE Acts.
They were joined by family members of Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer, members of Congress; Black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community-based organizations; civil rights organizations; and law enforcement leaders.
“Throughout our history, and to this day, hate crimes have a singular impact because of the terror and fear they inflict on entire communities,” said Garland. “No one in this country should have to fear the threat of hate fueled violence.”
As set forth in the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, the Justice Department and HHS announced the joint issuance of guidance aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes during the COVID–19 pandemic.
This guidance provides an overview of the rise of hate crimes and hate incidents during the pandemic, including a surge of hate crimes and hate incidents against Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, and several steps that law enforcement, government officials, and others can take to raise awareness of increased hate crimes and incidents, and to use increased awareness as a tool for the prevention of and response to hate crimes.
The Justice Department also announced the release of $10 million in grant solicitations in newly created grant programs to address hate crimes and hate incidents.
This includes solicitations for grants authorized under the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act programs.
Through these programs, the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) will provide up to $5 million in grant funds for the Bureau of Justice Statistics to support the transition of state and local law enforcement agencies to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and reporting of hate crimes through NIBRS, and for the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) to fund states to establish and run state-run reporting hotlines for victims of hate crimes.
OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) also released $5 million in grant solicitations under the Community-Based Approaches to Prevent and Address Hate Crimes Program, which supports community-based organizations and civil rights groups with implementing comprehensive approaches to promote community awareness and preparedness, increase victim reporting, strengthen community resiliency, and improve responses to hate crimes.
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