With a new California hate-crimes law in effect, perpetrators can now get up to three years in prison and 400 hours of mandatory community service.
Barbara Bergen, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the law timely.
“Jerry Falwell recently determined that the Antichrist is among us and [that] he’s an adult Jewish male. We don’t know what impact that’s going to have on anti-Semitism so certainly shoring up our hate-crime protections is as important as it’s ever been.”
The law took effect last month.
Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-S.F.) sponsored the bill, AB1450, which passed last year in the state Assembly and Senate. Gov. Pete Wilson signed it Sept. 24.
The ADL supported the bill, testifying in Sacramento in August. Until now, hate crimes could be tried only as misdemeanors, with a maximum sentence of one year in county jail.
The new law makes crimes motivated by race, gender, religion, national origin, ancestry or sexual orientation punishable by imprisonment ranging from one to three years in prison.
Bergen said the law, which enables some hate crimes to be charged as felonies, will benefit the community as a whole.
“We are always gratified to see legislation passed that increases the protections to people subjected to bias-motivated violence. All the hate-crime laws impact not only the minority community but the majority community as well,” she said.
“To the extent that anti-Semitism is not only felt but acted on, these increased protections can only provide us with an increased safety net.”
California had 1,831 documented hate-crime incidents in 1997, according to the ADL; 11.6 percent of these were anti-Semitic incidents.
Shelley’s bill was in response to a 1997 incident in which Asian-owned businesses in San Francisco’s Sunset District were covered with swastikas.