Biden backs Meng’s COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act
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President Biden called on Congress to pass a measure sponsored by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng in response to the surge in anti-Asian hate attacks. AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta
By Rachel Vick
President Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation compelling the Department of Justice to streamline the review COVID-related hate crimes amid a spike in anti-Asian attacks across the United States.
The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, introduced by Queens Rep. Grace Meng, would create an office in the DOJ to review local, state and federal bias offenses and mandate regular reporting, developments intended to foster collaboration and expedite hate crime cases.
“It’s time for Congress to codify and expand upon these actions — because every person in our nation deserves to live their lives with safety, dignity and respect,” Biden said March 19.
Meng described the importance of the bill during an appearance on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show Monday, less than a week after a gunman killed eight women, including six of Asian descent, at Atlanta-area spas. The mass murder comes amid a surge of anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City and nationwide.
Meng said the legislation would increase coordination between federal and local law enforcement.
“We have to not just make it easier to report but we have to give local organizations and law enforcement more tools and how to investigate these sorts of incidents,” she said.
One of the greatest challenges is proving that attacks are racially motivated, Meng said. A caller had referenced a February stabbing in Chinatown where Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance declined to press hate crime charges. Authorities say the alleged Atlanta killer was motivated to kill the women by his own sex addiction, and not because of their race or ethnicity.
Meng said hate crimes are far more pervasive than they appear based on NYPD reports or prosecutions.
Better coordination and federal oversight are important, she said, and “especially needed for these cases we've seen recently affecting Asian Americans, because people use racial slurs which out of context does not sound like anything hateful or discriminatory but [hatred] was the intent of the person who said it.
She said discriminatory language like “Chinese virus” or being told “go back” to another country might not constitute a hate crime on its own, but those statements should demonstrate racially-motivated intent when they accompany violence.
“Clearly ... they are meant in a hateful way, a discriminatory way, and in my opinion should be charged [as] a hate crime” Meng said.
Meng said addressing discrimination and hate crimes also takes education and community-building.
“Even if we were to say every single perpetrator should be charged with a hate crime, that doesn't necessarily solve the problem in the long term,” she said. “Communities working together with better understanding is a better and more surefire way than just locking someone up. It’s a complicated [problem] that needs a wraparound solution.”
Her bill, which is sponsored in the Senate by Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono, would also allocate more resources to the Department of Justice to make it easier for victims and witnesses to report incidents. She said many people face obstacles like a lack of translation services and difficulty navigating forms.
She said support is growing for the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, but many Republicans continue to use hateful and biased rhetoric when describing the coronavirus pandemic — an approach typified by ex-President Donald Trump, who has frequently called COVID-19 the “Wuhan flu,” “China virus” and “kung flu.”
Just 14 Republicans voted in favor of the measure when it was first introduced last year. The discriminatory rhetoric from leaders fuels hate crimes and bias, she said.
“We are adults,” she said. “We are members of Congress elected by our constituents to have mature discussions. We wanted to talk about this real issue which the Republican Party largely seems to be in denial of ... to find legislative solutions.”
“We can have mature, nuanced conversations about countries, about viruses, about various issues without endangering the lives of our constituents,” she added.
