Attorney General Commission on Hate Crime
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The Attorney General Civil Rights Commission has completed 8 of the 21 community forums on hate crimes it is holding in communities throughout California.  

Participants at the Fresno, Redding, Marysville, Seaside, San Luis Obispo forums urged the Commission to consider the critical role schools play in shaping the milieu of the communities they serve and to come up with recommendations for schools to address issues of respect and diversity with their students.  A few schools received praise, but much of the testimony described incidents where people felt school staff demonstrated bias and a lack of competence in working with students from diverse backgrounds.  School administrators participating in some of the forums cautioned the Commission against adding responsibilities to schools to address bias-related incidents without providing the resources necessary to allow the recommendations to be implemented. 

The forums in Orange County and San Diego were noticeably different from the previous ones in that the participants at the forums were more engaged in addressing hate incidents and hate crimes because strong networks were already operating in those areas. 

Mistrust of law enforcement was expressed at a few of the forums.  At one venue, the meeting opened up opportunities for people in the community to dialog with police officials.  Some of the testimony illustrated that when one or more line officers is perceived as bigoted their actions reflect on the department as a whole requiring officials gathering hate crime reports to carry out special efforts to gain trust and open communication with the affected communities.  Some police officials commented that more work needs to be done to build trust between all residents of the communities they serve and law enforcement.

Members of community groups serving victims of hate violence and hate crimes found that once they built a relationship with police responsible for addressing hate crime they were able to serve as a bridge between their constituency and law enforcement.  Some speakers urged the Commission to support the development of broad-based community networks to work with schools and law enforcement to prevent and respond to hate crimes.

The Commission is currently reviewing recommendations framed for their consideration and the first draft of a report will be presented to them at their meeting on August 2nd in Oakland.  The community forums will continue until late September and a final draft of the report will be submitted to the Attorney General at the Commission meeting in October.  Members of CAHRO may get a copy of the recommendations and submit comments on them by mailing, e-mailing or faxing a request to CAHRO.