California Department of Justice to form new racial justice bureau, hire six attorneys

Hiring spree comes in wake of nationwide spike in anti-Asian American incidents

The California Department of Justice will form a new racial justice bureau to focus on the spike in antiAsian American incidents across the state, White supremacist groups and other hate-based problems, Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday.

Speaking from his first official press conference since he was sworn in last month, Bonta said that he will hire six new attorneys and an assistant attorney general in the coming weeks to oversee the new bureau. It will take on hate crimes, investigate extremist organizations, advise local law enforcement agencies, address campus climate issues and assist with reparations proposals for descendants of slavery.

The bureau is partially a response to the “full-blown crisis” of anti-Asian American sentiments and hate crimes over the past year, Bonta said, as well as national discussions surrounding police violence against Black and brown people. Last spring, California was home to protests up and down the state after a Minnesota police officer murdered Black resident George Floyd.

“We are in the middle — nationwide, statewide — of a racial justice reckoning,” said Bonta, who is Filipino American. “It is very important that we all see the longtime, very detrimental and debilitating effects of racism in all its forms, in all the places it exists.”

The organization Stop AAPI Hate has received more than 6,500 reports of anti-Asian incidents across the U.S. since last March, more than 2,000 of which took place so far in 2021, according to a new report. About 65% of the incidents involve verbal harassment, and 13% involve physical assault.

With 40% of those incidents reported in California, a recent statewide poll found that the overwhelming majority of Asian Americans fear becoming victims of hate-based violence, more so than Black and Latino residents.

Yet local law enforcement agencies often fail to recognize and investigate hate crimes, Bonta said, referencing a 2018 state audit that found several agencies — including San Francisco State University Police Department — lack the policies and methods necessary to adequately address them. Hate crimes are also difficult to prosecute because of the high burden of proof required.

Part of the bureau’s work will involve working with local police to share “best practices” for hate crime investigations and identifying implicit bias in policing, Bonta said, though he did not share details on how that could play out practically.

When asked how those goals differ from the DOJ’s regular duties, the attorney general noted that some of the bureau’s plans — like assisting a new committee in discussing reparations — are entirely new for the department.

More broadly, however, the office’s explicit commitment to “viewing the world and the challenges of California” through a racial justice lens is a departure from the status quo, Bonta said. At the end of the month, the DOJ will convene a group of California mayors from large cities to weigh in on their local priorities.

“This is a beginning,” Bonta said of the new bureau. “We’re staking our claim, planting our flag, committing to this area of work.”