Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Senate passes legislation to improve hate crime reporting

(JTA) — The Senate passed a bill to help law enforcement respond to hate crimes and report them to the federal government, alongside legislation that specifically combats anti-Asian hate crimes.

As anti-Semitism has risen in recent years, national Jewish organizations have urged the government to improve the hate crime reporting process.

Passed Thursday by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, the No Hate Act and COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act were spurred by a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, including the mass shooting in Atlanta last month that killed eight people, including six Asian women.

The No Hate Act helps local law enforcement agencies implement a system that makes reporting hate crimes easier. It also supports training for law enforcement on how to identify and respond to hate crimes, and provides funding for the establishment of hate crime reporting hotlines. It will also allow judges to mandate education and community service for people convicted of hate crimes.

The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act designates a Justice Department official to review reports of hate crimes related to the pandemic and support law enforcement in responding to those hate crimes, according to the Washington Post. It also mandates that the government issue guidance to discourage the use of bigoted language to refer to the pandemic.

“These bills reflect the growing consensus across America that enough is enough: there is no place hate in our communities,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement praising the passage of the legislation.

BY BEN SALES

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.