LA MESA CITY COUNCIL VOTES 4-1 TO SUPPORT “NO PLACE FOR HATE” STATE LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE
By Henri Migala
June 7, 2022 (La Mesa) -- The La Mesa City Council voted 4-1 on May 24 to support a package of three California State Legislature bills that seek to address the high and rapidly escalating rate of hate crimes throughout the region, state and country.
The bills are some of the first in the nation that seek to address hate crimes through public health awareness, rather than the criminal justice system. The distinction being made is that the bills are based on interventions built upon information, education and raising public awareness to dissuade hate speech rather than punishment, or waiting until hate speech results in criminal offenses.
The three CA State Legislative Bills are all part of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders’ package aimed at stopping hate crimes before they occur. They include:
- California State Assembly Bill 2549, by Assemblymembers Mia Bonta, Al Muratsuchi, and Akilah Weber (and its corresponding budget request), calls for a public health awareness campaign on street harassment.
- California State Senate Bill 1161, by State Senator Dave Min (and its corresponding budget request), seeks to protect women and other vulnerable groups from harassment on public transit systems. It requires the state’s 10 largest transit districts to study harassment with data-driven initiatives to ensure safer riding.
- California State Assembly Bill 2448 by Assemblymember Phil Ting seeks to prevent harassment in private businesses.
Context of Hate Crimes
More than 9,000 acts of hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. Many more incidents continue to go unreported, making the actual number much higher.
According to StopAAPIHate.org, California leads the nation in the number of hate incidents by a wide margin, with over 3,500 hate incidents, or nearly 39%, of all reports nationwide. Per AAPI, “The vast majority of hate incidents against AAPIs involve conduct that is not criminal, such as verbal harassment, and take place in person and in spaces open and accessible to the public, such as streets and sidewalks, businesses, public transit, and parks.”
Hate incidents reported by women make up nearly two-thirds of all reports in the state and a majority of these reports are accounts of verbal harassment or name calling, including sexist slurs, in public (StopAAPIHate.org).
The three bills seek to address hate crimes through education, information and awareness, as the incidences of hate crimes across the region, state and nation, continues to rise, in some places by more than 300%.
City Council Discussion: Agenda Item 12.1: Consideration of Resolution to Support AAPI’S “NO PLACE FOR HATE” California Legislative Package
Vice Mayor Jack Shu (below right) started the discussion by stating that he would like to “place it forward because it’s AAPI month, but also because the issue of harassment and hate, throughout the country, state, and southern California and in La Mesa, exists and we need to make recognition of it.”
Shu continued, “We need to make the issue of hate a public health issue, and put it in that framework. To prevent hate, it’s time for the state to address it, from a public health perspective.”
Seemingly not recognizing the distinction between a public health intervention and a criminal justice one, Councilmember Laura Lothian mentioned that there are already laws that address harassment and that this bill is really all about “government controlling speech.” Lothian added, “the only thing that could change with this is words and I think that Government censorship is a very scary thing.”
[For clarification, the La Mesa City Council was considering a vote on a resolution to lend support to three bills in the state Legislature, however the bills would not create new criminal penalties but would instead focus on changing actions through information and education].
Congressperson Shu responded, “This Legislation is very specific to harassment and hate, and that’s what it’s trying to control from a public health perspective. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech. That’s going to continue to be protected, and I certainly hope that we’re going to continue to protect freedom of speech.”
“I don’t think that something like hate is something we should be protecting,” continued Shu. “Hateful language, hateful actions, are things we need to address from a public health perspective, and how we can reduce them.” He continued, “By the time someone assaults somebody, pushes them, sets them on fire, which happened in Brooklyn, where there was an older Asian woman and they set her sweater on fire, by the time it gets to that, sure, it’s a penal code violation. But we should be able to curtail that way before then. That’s what this legislation at least tries to measure and see what we can do to prevent it.”
After the City Council discussion, public speakers were allowed to make their statements.
The first to address the City Council was Mejgan Afshan. “I am the co-founder and Executive Director of Borderlands for Equity,” she stated, “the only civil rights, pro-bono, non-profit based in La Mesa, and I’m calling in support of resolution and package.”
Afshan explained, “We’ve seen a steep increase of hate crimes. According to a recent study done by the Center for the Study of Hate Crime and Extremism in CA, at CA State University San Bernadino, [there has been] a 46% increase in hate crimes across the nation in our largest cities in 2021, and incredibly, the number of anti-Asian hate crimes has increased 339% in the country’s largest metro areas since 2021. This issue needs to be addressed, whether it’s in mass-transit, on our walkways, or roadways. We need to be able to address the crisis that we’re facing.”
Locally, she noted, “In the last month alone, we’ve had three hate crimes in East County, one in La Mesa.”
The East County Justice Coalition has created an anti-hate crime documentary series that premiered June 5 at the Vista La Mesa Church and encouraged the community to participate in a discussion on anti-hate crime issues. “As an Afghan-American that is part of the Asian-American community, I think it’s very much an issue across all refugees, LGBTQRA, as well as people of color, and of course, our Black community members,” Afghan added.
The next speaker who came to share her comments in-person at the meeting, which was also accessible virtually, was Dr. Janet Castanos (left), Chair of the city’s Community Police Oversight Board.
“Incidence of hate crimes have been growing up over the past four to five years in the US,” stated Castanos. “Our city made national news in May 2020, when a peaceful protest was overtaken by outside agitators and evolved into mayhem and destruction… The City of La Mesa needs to come out as a national leader that comes out advocating against hate.”
Councilmember Baber introduced a member in the audience. Odan (below right) lives in La Mesa and is a member of the local Russian-Ukrainian community. Odan didn’t submit a public comment card but was allowed to address the City Council (and to complete his public comment card afterwards).
“You can’t control behavior,” shared Odan. “You have to look at the facts on why we have hate crimes on the rise. Hate crimes are on the rise for many reasons. One reason is because we don’t have the prosecutors doing their jobs and throwing people in jail who have to be thrown in jail. We have a breakdown in society.”
He added, “We’re going through hard times and people need to take responsibility for their actions. Parents have to parent their kids, and don’t wait for the government to take care of their kids. I think we are a faith-based community, whether you believe in God or not. If you don’t believe in the 10 Commandments, there’s “the Golden Rule.” These are some of the many reasons we are having a breakdown in our society.”
Councilmember Lothian (below left) then criticized what she views as an expanded definition and classification of “hate,” that has grown from “what it used to be, which was war, annihilation, genocide, slaughter, murder, beatings,” to include more interpersonal and institutional dynamics.
“`Where are you from?’ is now hate speech,” declared Lothian, without any explanation or context. “What if a couple of years down the road, you are starting to get fined, or censored, or imprisoned, because you made someone uncomfortable, or you were inappropriate?” asked Lothian. “I just worry that we’ve given our government too much control of everything and I don’t want to give them control of our speech.”
It was unclear what Councilmember Lothian was referring to since neither the Resolution before the Council, nor any of the three Bills before the California State Legislature, provide the government with authority or power to limit legally protected free speech.
Councilmember Lothian’s comments provided a timely and apropos example for why the need of increased public awareness, information and education, about what “hate” and “hate speech” are, is so necessary.
Councilmember Colin Parent then thanked Councilmember Shu for bringing forward this resolution and stated that he was in favor of it. But, following Councilmember Lothian’s comments, Parent said he felt a need to further explain and clarify what was before the City Council.
“Just to make sure that everyone here understands,” stated Parent, “the bills being suggested for support don’t have anything to do with limiting people’s speech,” adding that the bills also don’t create any “punishments for things that people think or say. It’s just to support some public information campaigns about telling people to be nicer to one another in their public dialogue and not harassing people on the streets. That seems like a pretty modest thing, and we’re talking about an amount of money to be spent on that it is only a tiny fraction of the budget surplus that the state has right now. This just seems like a very reasonable and proportionate way to try to address some of the hate that is happening and the harassment that certain members of our community are experiencing. So, I think it’s quite sensible, and I look forward to my colleagues supporting it.”
Councilmember Bill Baber then shared that he is “not AAPI by birth, but AAPI by marriage. My Stepmother was Filipina,” adding that he would cast his vote in honor of his Filipina stepmother, Percy Baker.
Following some of the comments made during discussion, Mayor Mark Arapostathis also felt a need to clarify matters.
“I’m concerned that some people may perceive that the City Council is passing the legislation,” stated Arapostathis. He reminded the City Council members, and the public, that was being put forward to the Council, and what is being discussed is only “to support the investigation of the legislation that’s in California. And we’re talking about the California budget, not the La Mesa budget,” continued Arapostathis. “I felt a need to clear things up, because sometimes people hear things and think that we have the power to enact statewide law. That’s not the case. This is a resolution.”
The City Council voted to support the resolution 4-1, with Lothian opposed.
Hate Speech
According to the American Library Association, “There is no legal definition of "hate speech" under U.S. law, just as there is no legal definition for evil ideas, rudeness, unpatriotic speech, or any other kind of speech that people might condemn. Generally, however, hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin."
According to the website, Connect Safely, “hate speech is more than just harsh words. It can be any form of expression intended to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or class of people. It can occur offline or online or both. It can be communicated using words, symbols, images, memes, emojis, and video. In general, online hate speech targets a person or group because of characteristics tied closely to their identity, like race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, or sexual identity.”
The site goes on to state, “Hate speech can harm individuals, communities, and societies. Research has found that targets of hate speech can experience negative emotional, mental, and physical consequences. These can include low self-worth, anxiety, fear for their lives, and even self-harm or suicide. Some types of hate speech are prone to incite violence. This “dangerous speech” follows specific patterns that cross societies, time periods, and type of targeted group. Recently, dangerous speech in online contexts, specifically on social media, has resulted in deaths in places like Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Uganda as well as in Buffalo, El Paso, and other American communities.”
Several dozen countries around the world, from Australia to the United Kingdom, have laws against hate speech.
In the U.S., even under the Constitution’s First Amendment, hate speech is unprotected when it directly incites imminent criminal activity or includes specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group, just as yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre is not protected under the First Amendment.
Link to the Resolution to Stop Hate Against Asian American Pacific Islanders:
https://pub-lamesa.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5272
Link to video recording of City Council Meeting of May 24 (discussion of AAPI Resolution begins at 1:15:50):
Link to Assembly Bill 2549 – Street Harassment Prevention
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2549
Link to Senate Bill 1161 – Transit Operators – Street Harassment Plans
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1161
Link to Assembly Bill 2448 - Civil rights: businesses: discrimination and harassment: customers: third parties (to prevent harassment in private businesses)
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2448
Link to StopAAPIHate.org:
Atop AAPI Hate “Starting Point to Take Action:”
https://stopaapihate.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/SAH-State-Policy-Agenda-10.13.21-w_urls-2.pdf
Connect Safely released a Parent’s and Educator’s Quick-Guide to Hate Speech:
https://www.connectsafely.org/quickguide-hatespeech/