By Cory Kefauver
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Monday that his administration will be taking actions to fight the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes in Maryland.
Hogan said he plans to enhance safety and enforcement against anti-Asian crimes as well as introduce measures that could empower students and educators to fight discrimination against Asian Marylanders.
The governor said he wants to update hate and bias training for law enforcement to include reporting of hate incidents and crimes. He also said he is encouraging law enforcement agencies to prioritize diversity in recruiting and offer incentives for officers who are able to speak multiple languages.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to help provide additional protection to those who are impacted by these crimes,” Hogan said. “In Maryland, hate crimes targeting Asian Americans have more than doubled since 2018.”
Along with updated hate and bias training, Hogan said that he wants to designate a Maryland State Police commander as a liaison for hate crimes and racially biased incidents.
Robert K. Hur, former U.S. attorney and chairman of the governor’s Asian American Hate Crimes workgroup, said his committee looked at law enforcement data and surveys to get a feel for how much Asian hate crimes have risen.
“Numerous sources including official law enforcement statistics, survey data of the Asian American communities across the nation, have seen a very significant increase in the number of hate crimes and hate based incidents since 2019,” Hur said. “If you narrow the scope down to Maryland, we’ve also seen a similar increase if you look at the data between 2019 to 2020.”
Hogan said his administration also wants to increase Protecting Against Hate Crimes (PAHC) funding to $5 million from the current $3 million. This is a 67% increase in funding for the PAHC.
“I’m calling on other leaders across the country to use their voices to speak out clearly and forcefully to condemn attacks against our Asian American community,” Hogan said. “The actions that we are announcing here today are the beginning. We will use every tool at our disposal to help provide additional protection to those who are impacted by these crimes.”
The Asian Pacific Islander American Vote, a group dedicated to encouraging civic participation of Asian Pacific Islander Americans in the electoral process, put out a statement thanking the governor for his plan to combat Asian hate in Maryland.
“Thank you, Governor Larry Hogan.” Asian Pacific Islander American Vote said via Facebook. “We welcome this initiative as anti-Asian hate crimes continue to plague our communities and hope to see other states take similar actions.”
The actions come as suggestions from the Asian American Hate Crimes workgroup that the governor created in April to figure out ways to combat the rise of anti-Asian crimes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.