‘HATE HAS NO PLACE IN CONNECTICUT’
On heels of mass shooting in Buffalo that targeted a Black neighborhood, Lamont signs new state law strengthening hate crimes investigations
MIDDLETOWN — A new law signed by Gov. Ned Lamont is meant to
strengthen police investigations of hate crimes, a move legislators say is especially important following the racist mass shooting in Buffalo earlier this month that targeted Black shoppers at a supermarket.
Under the new law, state police will be required to have a Hate Crime Investigation Unit that will handle centralized, statewide hate crime investigations. The bill was signed by Lamont on May 10, but a ceremonial signing at State Police headquarters was held Tuesday.
“Hate has no place in Connecticut,” Lamont said at a press conference in Middletown on Tuesday morning, just
before signing Public Act 22-9. “Nobody should ever have to fear being the victim of a crime for being who they are.”
The hate crime unit — first established under executive order from Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner James C. Rovella last fall — will be charged with preventing, detecting, tracking and analyzing crimes that are rooted in bigotry or bias against victims based on their race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, ethnicity or disabilities.
Rovella said he hopes the permanency of the hate crime unit will allow the State Police to “continue to connect with our partners to eliminate hate incidents through prevention, investigation, data sharing and awareness.”
Part of his role as commissioner, Rovella said Tuesday, is to “look past the horizon for the state of Connecticut” and monitor national trends, such as upticks in racist crimes against Black people following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and the rise of crimes against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What happens nationally does ripple through us,” he said, and this law gives investigators one more tool to combat the rise in crimes.
In 2020, the FBI reported that the overall number of crimes motivated by bigotry or bias in the United States increased by 949 compared to the year
before, contributing to a total of 8,263 hate crime incidents against 11,126 victims in 2020.
In Connecticut, 101 hate crimes were reported in 2020, according to FBI data.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said Tuesday that the Anti-defamation League has noted a rise in hate crime incidents in the state, adding that there is “no better time to act than now.”
“The recent tragedy in Buffalo makes this signing especially timely,” she said. Ten people — all of whom were Black — were killed in the attack on May 14.
Rovella also recognized recent shooting in Buffalo when discussing how the unit will walk the fine line of not violating freedom of speech when looking at markers of hate crimes online.
He said they will work to track “aspirational folks who become operational on a moment’s notice, such as the man in Buffalo” who wrote a manifesto and planned his crimes before actually opening fire.
Lamont said one of the goals of the hate crime unit is to identify indicators for hate crimes, especially online or on social media, and get ahead of them in a more preventative approach.
The new law also broadens the reporting of hate crimes by local law enforcement by requiring them to use a reporting system developed by the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Council and creates best practices and a model investigation policy for law enforcement units to use, according to state officials.
State Sen. Saud Anwar — one of the bill’s co-sponsors — said that, unfortunately, data shows that the need for hate crime investigations will likely only increase and the tools need to be in place to make those investigations as efficient as possible.
Anwar said that Connecticut, by signing this law, is helping to create a model for hate crime legislation for the rest of the country to follow.