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Lawmakers in Democrat-run Washington have introduced a \u201csnitch line\u201d for residents to call in and report \u201chate crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bill says the hotline should be staffed during business hours. It says call takers should provide victims with information, refer them to culturally competent, trauma-informed local service providers for additional help and document the calls for annual reports. Identifying information will be kept out of the reports and will be exempt from public disclosure requests,\u201d Breitbart reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cSB 5427 passed the Senate on Feb. 7 and cleared the House on Wednesday, drawing unanimous support from Democrats and near-unanimous opposition from Republicans. It\u2019s now headed to Gov. Jay Inslee\u2019s desk to be signed into law,\u201d the outlet continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cProponents say a hotline is needed because many hate crimes currently go unreported to \u2014 or undocumented by \u2014 police[.]\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWashington police reported 590 hate crimes\u00a0to the FBI\u00a0for 2022, 651 for 2021 and 462 for 2020,\u201d the\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0admits. \u201cIn the most recent year, 63% of the state\u2019s hate crimes were related to race, ethnicity or ancestry, while 18% were related to sexual orientation and 10% were related to religion.\u201d<\/p>\n And yes, this is nothing less than a snitch line: \u201cEspecially in marginalized communities, people might be afraid to contact police. Even when police are contacted, they might lack evidence to document a hate crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n