STATE AG MEETS WITH LOCAL LEADERS TO DISCUSS RISE IN HATE CRIMES

Roundtable includes mayor, police chief, community groups

California Attorney General Rob Bonta met with San Diego’s top officials and community leaders Monday to discuss the rising number of hate crimes in the state.

Hate crimes in California jumped 31 percent last year, with 1,015 hate-crime events in 2019 and 1,330 in 2020.

Bonta is on a statewide, 13-city tour to discuss with local leaders how to deal with the crimes. Monday’s visit to San Diego was his fourth stop. He held a roundtable discussion with Mayor Todd Gloria, Police Chief David Nisleit, City Attorney Mara Elliott, District Attorney Summer Stephan and leaders from organizations such as Border Angels and the local chapter of the NAACP.

The roundtable was not public, but Bonta said at a news conference afterward that California is in a “state of crisis right now ... when it comes to hate.”

According to figures compiled by the San Diego Association of Governments, the San Diego region fared better last year than the rest of the state — hate crime reports dipped by more than 10 percent with 97 in 2019 down to 87 in 2020.

Gloria said at Monday’s news conference that 45 hate crimes occurred locally in the first half of 2021.

Experts believe several factors contributed to the rise in hate crimes statewide. Anti-Black crimes rose amid the social unrest that followed the death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests. Anti-Asian hate crimes increased during the pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China. And presidential election years, dating back to at least the 1990s, are accompanied by a rise in hate crimes, particularly in the days and weeks after the vote.

Dulce Garcia, executive director of the nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization Border Angels, said she remembered hearing hateful anti-immigrant speech while growing up in California. She tied continuing “hurtful rhetoric” to the Donald Trump administration.

“Today’s conversations were very important because it’s not just about ‘sticks and stones.’ This hateful language has led to horrible crimes in our nation and here locally,” Garcia said.