Assembly Bill 449 Hate Crimes

All acts of hatred, bias and bigotry are unacceptable. A hate crime is any crime motivated in whole or in part by bias, prejudice, or bigotry. However, not all hate is a crime. A hate incident is often involving a person making non-threatening bigoted, biased or prejudiced comments to another individual based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or other personal characteristics. It also can involve a person displaying a non-threatening, bigoted, biased or prejudiced message or image in certain contexts. Although deeply hurtful and offensive, hate incidents do no violate criminal or civil law.