BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1234|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1234
Author: Kuehl (D), et al
Amended: 5/24/04
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 4-0, 4/27/04
AYES: Vasconcellos, Burton, Romero, Sher
NO VOTE RECORDED: McPherson, Margett
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-5, 5/20/04
AYES: Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Escutia, Karnette, Machado,
Murray, Speier
NOES: Battin, Aanestad, Ashburn, Johnson, Poochigian
SUBJECT : Crimes: civil rights
SOURCE : Equality California
DIGEST : This bill redrafts, reorganizes and expands laws
relating to hate crimes.
ANALYSIS : This bill creates a uniform statutory
definition of hate crime and includes in this definition
"those associated with a person or group," expands and
clarifies criminal penalties and penalty enhancements for
hate crimes, requires the Commission on Peace Officer
Standards and Training (POST) to develop
hate-crime-specific content for law enforcement raining,
requires the Judicial Council of California to issue a Rule
of Court pertaining to hate crime sentencing, requires
CONTINUED
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courts to take steps to protect the health, safety and
privacy of alleged victims of hate crimes, requires the
State Department of Corrections and the State Department of
the Youth Authority to work with other law enforcement
agencies to prevent hate crimes, within existing resources,
requires local law enforcement agencies to report to the
State Attorney General (AG) on crimes against victims who
are homeless, thereby creating a state-mandated local
program, requires the AG to report to the Legislature
annually as to crimes against homeless victims, and makes
conforming changes to the Civil, Education, Government and
Penal Codes.
Existing law provides that no person, whether or not acting
under color of law, shall by force or threat of force,
willfully injure, intimidate, interfere with, oppress, or
threaten any other person in the free exercise or enjoyment
of any right or privilege secured to him or her by the
Constitution or laws of this state or by the Constitution
or laws of the United States because of the other person's
race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin,
disability, gender, or sexual orientation, or because
he/she perceives that the other person has one or more of
those characteristics. Existing law also provides that no
person, whether or not acting under color of law, shall
knowingly deface, damage, or destroy the real or personal
property of any other person for the purpose of
intimidating or interfering with the free exercise or
enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to the other
person by the Constitution or laws of this state or by the
Constitution or laws of the United States, because of the
other person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national
origin, disability, gender, or sexual orientation, or
because he/she perceives that the other person has one or
more of those characteristics. Existing law requires that
any person who violates these provisions be punished by
imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by
a fine not to exceed $5,000, or by both that fine and
imprisonment.
Existing law provides, except in the case of a person
punished under the above provisions, that any crime that is
not made punishable by imprisonment in the state prison
shall be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison or
in a county jail not to exceed one year, by a fine not to
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exceed $10,000, or by both that imprisonment and fine, if
the crime is committed against the person or property of
another for the purpose of intimidating or interfering with
that other person's free exercise or enjoyment of any right
secured to him or her by the Constitution or laws of this
state or by the Constitution or laws of the United States
and because of the other person's race, color, religion,
ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, or sexual
orientation, or because the defendant perceives that the
other person has one or more of those characteristics,
under specified circumstances, including that the crime
against property causes damage in excess of $500.
This bill revises and recasts the provisions relating to
hate crimes by, among other things, providing a definition
for the term "hate crime." This bill reduces the above
property damage amount to $400.
Under existing law, POST is required to establish and keep
updated a continuing education classroom training course
relating to law enforcement interaction with
developmentally disabled and mentally ill persons. The
course is required to contain core instruction in specified
areas.
This bill changes the term "developmentally disabled and
mentally ill persons" to "mentally disabled persons." This
bill includes in the course instruction, instruction on the
fact that the crime was committed in whole or in part
because of an actual or perceived disability of the victim
is a hate crime. The bill requires POST, using available
funding, to develop a two-hour telecourse to be made
available to all law enforcement agencies in California on
crimes against homeless persons and on how to deal
effectively and humanely with homeless persons, including
homeless persons with disabilities. The telecourse will be
required to include information on multimission criminal
extremism, as defined. The bill also requires each state
and local law enforcement agency that reports crimes to the
State Department of Justice to report when a victim appears
to be homeless or self-identifies as homeless. Because
this bill increases the duties of local officials, it
imposes a state-mandated local program.
Existing law requires POST to develop guidelines and a
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course of instruction and training for law enforcement
officers who are employed as peace officers, or who are not
yet employed as a peace officer but are enrolled in a
training academy for law enforcement officers, addressing
hate crimes. Existing law requires the course to include
instruction in specified areas.
This bill, in addition, requires the course to have
instruction in multimission criminal extremism, the special
problems inherent in some categories of hate crimes,
preparation for, and response to, possible future
anti-Arab/Middle Eastern and anti-Islamic hate crime waves,
and any other future hate crime waves that the AG
determines are likely. This bill requires that POST
include in the guidelines a framework and possible content
of general order or other formal policy on hate crimes that
all state law enforcement agencies shall adopt and local
law enforcement agencies will be encouraged to adopt, as
specified.
The bill makes other conforming changes.
NOTE: See Senate Public Safety Committee analysis for a
detailed analysis of the various provisions of the
bill.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2004-05 2005-06
2006-07 Fund
POST training $500
Special*
Rule of Court Minor, absorbable costs
General
Court: victim safety Unknown, potentially
significant costs General
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Local: report to AG** Unknown, potentially
significant costs General
DOJ requirements $231 $165
$165General
Criminal penalties Unknown costs, potentially
in excess General
of $150 for incarceration
* Peace Officers' Training Fund
** State-mandated local program
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/24/04)
Equality California (source)
Anti-Defamation League
California Church Impact
California Council for the Blind, San Bernardino
California Council for the Blind, Inland Empire
California NOW
Commission on the Status of Women
Community United Against Violence
Crime Victims United of California
Jewish Community Relations Council
Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness
Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Muslim Public Affairs Council
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Coalition for the Homeless
Our Family Coalition
Pride at Work, Southern California
San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Community Center
SoCal Pride at Work
Transgender Law Caucus
Western Center on Law and Poverty
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/24/04)
Capitol Resource Institute
Campaign for California Families
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
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while California's hate crime statutes are among the
strongest in the nation, there are a number of
inconsistencies and ambiguities in California law that
create difficulties with enforcement. One of the problems
stems from the fact that the various hate crime statutes in
California are inconsistent in their basic definition of a
hate crime, this inconsistency leads to confusion on the
part of state and local agencies. The law is also unclear
about whether hate crime protections extend to victims who
are targeted because of their association with a particular
group. California law also does not have the same range of
penalties available for hate crimes as it does for
anti-religious and anti-reproductive crimes under the
Freedom of Access to Clinics and Church Entrances Act.
Also, there are no formal sentencing guidelines regarding
hate crimes. Although general orders or formal policies on
hate crimes increases an agency's propensity to report hate
crime by approximately 25 percent, only 49 percent of
California law enforcement and sheriff agencies had formal
policies relating to hate crime in place. Neither the law
nor police officer training has kept up-to-date in terms of
responding to the most recent and likely future waves of
anti-Arab and anti-Islamic hate crimes. Additionally,
there are special problems associated with identifying and
responding to certain types of hate crime that merit
additional training to assist law enforcement officers in
fully implementing California's hate crime statutes.
Furthermore the specter of being turned over to Federal
immigration authorities prevents out of status immigrants
who are victims or witnesses to hate crime from fully
cooperating with law enforcement. Much concern has been
raised about the high rate of violent crime against the
homeless and in particular mentally ill homeless persons.
Many of these crimes might be based upon disability bias.
While there is no consensus yet that housing status should
be added as a characteristic protected by California's hate
crime statutes it is clear that there should be further
study of the issue and training for police officers on
addressing crimes against the homeless.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Opponents argue that, "ALL
intentionally perpetrated crimes involve an element of
'hate.'
"The legislature should not hand-pick a few victims and
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elevate them above all other. For this reason, we strongly
oppose SB 1234.
"SB 1234 would also require a course of instruction for
police officers on the possible future anti-Arab/Middle
Eastern and anti-Islamic hate crime waves. Although Arab
people in general should definitely not be lumped together
with 9-11 terrorists, promoting this sort of language in SB
1234 is simply another tactic to patronize a certain class
of people and reject and mitigation efforts to protect our
borders and our national security."
RJG:mel 5/24/04 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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