By Alexander Ramirez
SACRAMENTO, CA – Amid the examples of hate attacks that have been increasingly common in recent years, along with activist groups that aim to combat these hate crimes, California lawmakers have also begun to take a stand on a legislative level.
In response to the hate attacks on the Asian Pacific Islander community, 18th District representative Rob Bonta has introduced AB 886.
On his Facebook page, Bonta ran a livestream of California legislators discussing how hate attacks affect different groups of people and what they plan to do in the fight against these hate crimes.
When talking about his feelings toward these groups being targeted and the anger it causes, Bonta said, “But I also have hope. Hope because we are not standing by. We are not being silent. 
Rather than accept the unacceptable, we are fighting back. We are taking action. We are proposing solutions. And hope because we are doing this together.”
While Bonta explicitly mentioned during his time on the microphone the Asian Pacific Islander community that was being targeted, there was other representation from the Chair of the Jewish Caucus, Jessie Gabriel, the Chair of the CA LGBTQ Caucus, Evan Low, and other prominent assemblymen and women.
AB 886 was designed to give people who have been previously targeted by hate acts to receive proper health services for recovery, as well as access to restorative justice programs.
This would also make it so that victim compensation funds are more accessible to victims of these hate acts. Bonta said that we should strive to be more proactive rather than reactive when it comes to these hate attacks.
“AB 886 would assure that consultation with the victim becomes a primary focus along with community healing. AB 886 would address prevention by providing additional restorative justice tools to proactively increase the likelihood that an individual who caused the harm would not do additional harm,” he said.
Across many of the speeches made by the assemblymen and women on this livestream, a common detail that many speeches shared was former-president Donald Trump’s rhetoric in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Namely, many cited the effect that terms like “The Kung-Fu Virus” and “The China Virus” have had on the API community. District 17 representative David Chiu said that, in Chinatown, business dropped 50 percent before a COVID case was announced.
Bonta closed the assembly with, “I appreciate all of my colleagues coming together; their words and actions of support. We are again standing together and we’re taking action and coming forward with solutions…”
Alexander Ramirez is a third-year Political Science major at the University of California, Davis. He hopes to hone his writing skills in preparation for the inevitable time of graduation.
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I am not clear what this bill does from what I read here. Asian victims of hate crimes are already covered as any other group, are they not? Does this bill enhance laws generally, and is not group specific?
Has their been similar backlash over the term “South African Strain” ? I do agree the first term is patently offensive (I’ve also never heard the term as written – what I’ve always heard is the clearly not-funny “Kung Flu”), I’m not so sure about the second term, except that Trump said it. I am asking because what I heard was a call to stop using geographic locations to name viruses, but then there was no backlash to the term “South African Strain”, and I truly don’t understand that.
I only quoted this because it doesn’t make sense as written – did you mean ‘after’ a Covid-19 case was announced? I’m also not sure which Chinatown is being referred to here.
“AB 886 will fund community-based organizations that provide culturally competent mental health services for victims of hate violence and restorative justice programs. AB 886 would also expand the eligibility for victims of hate violence to access victim compensation funds and not be denied solely because the victim did not file a police report.”
There are new variants named the South African Strain, the UK Strain, the Brazil Strain and we even now have a California Strain, but yet no outcry from the same people who denounced Trump for calling it the China Virus.
Because of the new California Strain should all Californians be entitled to “victim compensation funds” if we feel we have been victimized regardless of race?
Yes, all Californians deserve victim compensation funds and that is why you should support Biden’s 1.9 trillion dollars Covid relief bill. Especially after Trump’s failed efforts to contain the virus and refusal to take responsibility for that failure while he politicized everything from the place of origin to the wearing of masks at his super spreader event rallies. Trump’s inaction and misdirection made it worse for Californians and so we are entitled to relief funds.
Yes, I’ll take that free money and ‘Trump’ it with extra California victimization funds in the form of some type of California AB 886 funds giveaway because it’s named the California COVID Strain. Thank you very much. Free money for everyone.
Forgetting the questionable provisions for compensation without reporting a crime, and the apparent off-topic drift towards “Covid relief” and other topics, the condemnation of the current uptick in stupid threats, language, physical assaults of anyone, particularly the API folk (topic), must be done by the community as a whole, and stupid, hateful, behaviors stopped… I’m even considering “open carry” provisions for folk who feel under threat… and I don’t even own any firearms…
While some may want to banter around about ‘compensation’, perhaps we as a society can focus on stopping/preventing anti-social behavior.
But since some want to focus on game playing about compensation(s), I’ll play, too (since the powers that be appear to think that’s “on-topic”)… the bill provisions to award compensation to folk claiming to have been a victim of a “hate incident” is stupid… as are all of the “pork” provisions in the just-passed house bill for ‘Covid-relief’ that have absolutely nothing to do with real losses… and the provisions that do not target compensation to those who have truly suffered.
“… claiming without filing a police report, …”
Wow that’s in there? Incredible . . .
Can all the Jews in Davis make a claim of a hate incident based on that imam saying that every Jew on Earth should be exterminated? Or are Jews excluded from this legislation?
If not, I’m buying me a Mercedes!
Go ahead and buy that Mercedes… good for driving twisty roads, as you twisted my words… you could always have filed a civil suit…
You completely missed my main message about all those behaviors, including the one you cited, should be condemned and sanctioned… if you want free money for language by idiotic, bigoted, others , go for it… seems like everyone else is… go for it!
Or go to Big 5, get yourself a weapon, some ammo, and take care of it yourself if you don’t feel that there are other remedies…
Have you been, personally, attacked, verbally or physically, for ‘just being Jewish’? I was verbally attacked by a staunch Jew because I was Catholic. He was my roommate in college… I verbally made very clear he would be well advised not to “go there” again… he didn’t… I never once brought up his faith… I just drew the line on what I was willing to tolerate. As a society, we need to draw those lines, but focusing on monetary compensation rather than working to stop the bad/inappropriate by doing whatever you can (such as filing police reports) is BS. The compensation would come from all taxpayers, not the ‘perps’… unless someone files a police report, or files formal complaints with institutions (in your cite, the Islamic Center), and/or filing civil suits, just lining up for free money from the general public, is bogus, in my opinion.
Now, can we get back to the topic of focusing on stopping/preventing the bad behaviors?
Trump’s clear intent was to assign blame for the spread of the virus to China, not merely to identify the place of origin. Moreover, regardless of his initial intent, he continued to use the term China virus even after it became clear what the impact was on the API community. The fact that other groups have not been targeted in this manner is irrelevant. Who ever contended that racial hatred is rational and consistent? The fact is that Asians/Pacific Islanders have been singled out and targeted.
In any event, I don’t know that the Bonta bill applies only to the API community. (When I searched for AB 886 on Leginfo so that I could read it, an entirely different Bonta bill (related to public records) came up.)