Press Releases
05/20/2021
Attorney General Tong and Senator Blumenthal to Attend White House Bill Signing for COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act
(Hartford, CT) – At 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 20, Attorney General William Tong and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) will attend a White House ceremony to witness President Joe Biden sign the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law.
“I am honored to bear witness to this historic moment for Asian American and Pacific Islander families. We have had targets on our backs since demagogues first uttered racist phrases like ‘kung flu’ and ‘China virus.’ Vile and racist scapegoating put American families like mine in danger, and those responsible must be held accountable. But this is not new—there is a long-invisible history of anti-Asian scapegoating and violence in our country that must be acknowledged and addressed. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is a landmark measure in combatting this hate. I will work hand in hand with our partners in law enforcement to ensure each and every new tool now available is used to protect Connecticut families,” said Attorney General Tong.
“After years of advocacy, I am immensely proud of the solid bipartisan support against the surging scourge of hate crimes, especially abhorrent violence against Asian Americans,” Blumenthal said. “Better hate crime reporting is critical to stopping this scourge. Law enforcement lacks the data to implement comprehensive, meaningful solutions. Local reporting systems are woefully underutilized because of systemic problems in identifying and recording hate crimes. Our bill solves such problems by providing resources to states and localities for training, outreach, and reporting system improvements and by establishing new hotlines victims can directly call to report an attack. It also provides for alternative sentences that will promote community healing, reconciliation, and rehabilitation."
The legislation strengthens the federal government’s ability to respond to the rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic. Among other measures, the legislation addresses the rise of hate crimes and violence targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by establishing a point person within the Department of Justice to expedite review of COVID-19-related hate crimes, to support state and local law enforcement in responding to these hate crimes, and to coordinate efforts to combat discriminatory rhetoric used to describe the pandemic. The legislation incorporates language from the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act co-led by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to provide state and local governments and law enforcement agencies with the tools and resources to understand, identify, and report hate crimes and, as a result, help prevent them. He began the effort to pass this legislation in 2017 following a series of attacks on houses of worship.
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