CHICAGO — Civil rights groups are calling on state lawmakers to pass legislation to address a recent rise in hate crimes.
Representatives from 15 civil rights organizations came together at The Chicago Urban League on the city’s South Side on Monday.
The Illinois Senate already passed Senate bill 3552, and now these leaders are urging the Illinois House to do the same during the Lame Duck session in January.
FBI data, for Illinois alone, shows a spike from 2000 to 2001 — right after the Sept. 11 attacks.
From 2020 to 2022, the number of reported hate crimes surged from 61 to 325. Many of these cases targeted the Asian-American community during the height of COVID-19.
The civil rights organizations pointed to Chicago incidents like the October shooting of an Orthodox Jewish man in Rogers Park. The suspect was charged with attempted murder. Prosecutors did not file hate crime charges until a week later.
In March, a man yelled threats at a downtown Islamic center, then shattered the glass door.
This bill would mandate hate crime training for all police in the state, so they can better identify hate crimes, report them and respond.
The Illinois Senate and House Judiciary Committee passed the measure before the General Assembly’s June recess.
If the state House approves it and sends it to Governor JB Pritzker and he signs it, Illinois would become the 15th state to require all police agencies to undergo hate crime training.
