adult life, so it's been eye opening and a wonderful learning good afternoon and thank you all so much for joining us. i want to begin by thanking our attorney general rob bonta for coming here to the visitation valley community. it's really great to have you here in san francisco, but especially in this particular community and thank you for cohosting this round table discussion that was so important to talk about the challenges that exist around hate crimes in this city and in

this state. especially as we have seen an uptick in violent hate crimes against so many of our communities in san francisco and the bay area and across the state and nation. in just a few short months on the job, he's already taken action on a number of initiatives related to criminal justice reform and racial justice which are issues that we all care about deeply in san francisco. thanks to the commitment of the community leaders that are joining us here today, so many folks who have been really on the ground addressing these issues for decades, our police chief bill scott who is with us as well. we just had a very productive discussion on how we can continue to combat hate crimes by working together. we know that there's no short cut to this work and finding the root cause and solutions will require a continuous work in these and continuous

conversations of sharing of ideas not just when something happens, but also proactively when something isn't happening. to address hate crimes at their core, we need buy-in from local community support from law enforcement and a commitment from all levels of government here in san francisco. we're steadfast in ensuring that every community is heard and protected. whether it is work around violence, prevention, and racial justice, our partners have experience and have worked tirelessly and collaboratively with 1 another to combat these issues. today, as i said, we are in visitation valley because we remember when grandma wang as she was brutally attacked almost two years just a block away from here at the

visitation valley playground. grandma wang was doing her morning exercise when that tragic incident happened and sadly, she struggled for a year before passing away earlier this year. none of this should of happened and we want to send a clear message, an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. we will continue to stand in solidarity and here in san francisco, we will do everything we can to bring perpetrators of crimes of this nature to justice. leaders here are taking action and banning together and partnering and we're doing so because we know how important this is. an example of this work can be found in our expansion of the street violence intervention program with community youth center and self-help for the elderly and members of the street violence intervention program and i want to thank

sarah wang for really taking aggressive action and working with the community to make sure that people know that we're going to have eyes and ears on the streets, but we're also going to make sure that we support and look out for our seniors. part of this expansion, includes patrolling neighborhoods in the city and responding to hate crimes against our asian community. another part of the program provides seniors with escorts to go with them while buying groceries and seeing doctors so they can feel safe when running their errands. our goals with these two programs are to build the trust of these diverse communities and increase public safety for everyone in san francisco. just over a month ago, i was tagging along with sarah wang and the members of the street violence prevention program as they were engaging with merchants and customers along this commercial corridor or leeland avenue.

a lot of times merchants feel left out right here, but often times i had a chance to talk with merchants from the restaurants and coffee shops, they felt hopeful to see this effort and this partnership and they asked that we stay consistent, especially the community engagement from c.y.c. and svip. it's offered the support to those members to use the restroom or have a place to relax and i'm sure many of these great places to eat along leeland avenue have been some of their favorites. it takes a village and we know how to do this in san francisco. this really gives me hope because we're making a difference and residents and merchants are feeling the difference. we're committed to addressing xenophobia and we're here to support the visitation valley community and all of our partners in san francisco. and, i look forward to continuing this great work with

attorney general bonnta who knows how critical these issues are in san francisco. before i bring the attorney general up, i just want to recognize him and his efforts in listening to communities across the state. as leaders, it's easy for us to sit in the offices and go about our work and the fact that attorney general bonta is committed to not only doing the round table here in san francisco, but throughout the state in all of the major cities is so key to turning things around and keeping people safe. he's not waiting for the attacks to occur, he is being here, being proactive so that we can make a difference. he's here to listen and to take action and we will be working together hand in hand on policy changes, on investments and on whatever needs to be done so no

one has to be a victim of a crime in any part of our city or our state. and, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome attorney general rob bonta. >> well, thank you all for being here today and thank you mayor breed for your very kind remarks. thank you for your leadership, for seeing and valuing and fighting for all of the beautifully diverse communities right here in san francisco as we talked about inside. san francisco has been a leader, a model, has often and so consistently demonstrated policies and approaches that lift people up and make our community stronger and has often been a place where the state of california has scaled up those policies that have started right here in san francisco. so i'm thankful and proudtor here in san francisco today with mayor breed, chief scott,

and all of the great community leaders that you'll hear from today, that you'll hear from momentarily. and to talk about how we move forward and i was very inspired and i'm leaving very hopeful and optimistic about our shared future, our common future and our common commitment to addressing the epidemic of hate crimes. that spike in hate incidents that have impacted so many communities. no community is immune as we know. we certainly are well aware of the huge increases in anti-api violence. our black community, our sikh community, our lgbtq community, our disability community have

all suffered and our conversation today was a good reminder that we're all in this together, that we're going to move forward together or not at all and we can move forward when we have conversation when we listen, when we communicate as we just did. today's very important because this is the launch of thir teen of these round tables i'll be doing across the state where we sit in community, where we join a common circle and talk about our challenges and how to move forward and it was very appropriate that we started in san francisco today. given san francisco's historical and consistent leadership. and how it has always demonstrated that we celebrate our diversity and our diversity is our strength and so i appreciate the opportunity to be here and over the next few weeks, i'll be in different places all over the state having similar conversations to

uplift best practices to highlight and illuminate our solutions so that we can prevent and heal as we address this epidemic of hate throughout our state and throughout our nation. as california's attorney general, i see myself as being the people's attorney and it's important for me to see and value and protect every community and for so many of our communities, for too many of our communities right now we are in a full on state of crisis. a full state of emergency when it comes to hate and, you know, the statistics are alarming and they're shocking. we know that across california, hate crime events increased 31% across the board last year. anti-asian hate crimes in particular increased an alarming 107% and right here in san francisco, home to the lgbtq rights movement, anti-gay hate crimes accounted for over

25% of all hate crimes in the last decade. and, of course, statistics can illuminate and they tell a story but they don't tell the full story and so i was very thankful and grateful for the opportunity to hear directly from community members and impact from community members who shared their own stories. personal stories, painful stories about themselves. about the communities they fight for and they're trying to uplift and i appreciated that conversation today and, you know, it's going to take all of us to do this work. and, there's no you know there's no cure all, but there are many ways to make progress and we heard about many of those ways today being victim centered cross racial healing

circles. the list went on and on for how we can make progress and when we can make progress, we should. when we can take a step forward together, we must and so we identify many pathways to improve our work going forward. and in a few weeks, i'll be in my fifth month in office and since the day i swore in i've been addressing the epidemic of hate recognizing that too many of us for too long in this state have felt the sting of hate. tomb communities, you know, myself included. this is personal work for me as well. we got to work on day one taking on the forces of hate and that's why i've established the racial justice bureau to help tackle the rise of hate that's why i've issued new guidance to better understand hate crimes in california.

it's why we've launched the office of community awareness and response to directly engage with and respond to the needs of communities and it's why i've pledged to keep working to do more, to lean in, and to continue this fight and doing that working with our local communities like right here in san francisco. because we know that we must protect those hurt by the forces of hate and hold accountable those who perpetrate hate violence against our neighbors. and, you know, it didn't always seem like this, but it's like this now. for many of us, everyday life has come with an additional worry. whether it's going to the grocery store, picking up your children from school, riding a bus going for a morning walk. in these moments, too many of us right now are asking ourselves, could i be next? and the stakes are too high to sit back as mentioned by the

mayor, we're only blocks away from where an 89-year-old grandmother was senselessly assaulted and left to die. and, hate and prejudice cannot and will not be tolerated, plain and simple. as your attorney general with the full weight of the law and the california constitution behind me, let me say this, there is no place for hate in california or anywhere, any time period. full stop, end of story. and, across our different cultures and identities, today, we came together to affirm this fundamental truth. across our differences, we are united in making sure that our neighborhoods and our cities are safe and healthy and prosperous for all. nothing is most important. let me close by saying this. my parents are social justice

champions. i grew up as a young child. i had the blessing and the privilege of growing up in la paz. from a young age, i've worked with my parents. while they worked alongside iconic leaders and phillip veracruz that when you see injustice, you need to fight to correct it and injustice against one is injustice against all. today, we reaffirm the us, not the me that we're all in this together and that we will rise together or not at all and as i take on injustice in many forms, as the people's attorney, we are very laser focused on taking on hate incidents and hate crimes as the people's attorney, i thank you. next, we'll be hearing from

sarah wong, the executive director of the community youth center. >> thank you, mayor breed. and thank you for all the brothers and sisters behind me. today's round tame is truly inspiring, but it's also emotional to me. i think especially the asian communities are going through a lot of pain. even it runt one community doesn't feel safe or community doesn't feel safe and today when we have our own discussion, we talk about sharing a lot of similarities across different communities that we're dealing with anti-immigrant hate, anti-muslim hate.

anti-lgbt hate, all kind of hates that we see right now is a crisis. at the same time, because of this round table that we're here across the board, but also how we're going to coordinate together to really move forward to combat this kind of hate and violence. for everyone i really feel hopeful. we did talk about the challenge that we're facing including underreporting, language barriers. victim services. the lack of cultural competency services across the board. but we also talk about how important it is to really have violence prevention strategies. how will one make sure that we don't only respond when there is a crisis. so, that we don't always have to rely on gofundme and things like that when something

happens, when tragedy happens. so i really feel very hopeful and i'm really looking forward to work together from the state and also the city level to ensure the safety of all communities. thank you. >> i'm a member of the st. gregory arminian church of san francisco. after this meeting, we feel more secure knowing that the attorney general, the mayor, the chief of police, they've made it crystal clear that hate will not be tolerated at all on any level and that there are consequences to it. division is a source of -- it's a disease and it spreads through society and it's, we

cannot have a civil functions society with hate and there will be consequences and 0 tolerance and san francisco's at the forefront of it and we need to set an example not just in our city, but in had our state and for the entire country that hate be not be tolerated at all. thank you. >> thank you. happy to answer any questions if you have any. >> so in 2021, we've had 83 reported hate crimes. let me say this, that does not tell the whole story and 59% of those were against asian, people from the aapi community. and let me just point out one

thing of those 59% which is 49 hate crimes, 30 of those was committed by one person who is now in custody and has been filed on by our district attorney. as was said repeatedly by all the speakers, we will not tolerate it. there's no place in our city and there's no place for it in our state and we want to hold those accountable. >> can you talk more specifically about the arrests for hate crimes and that you understand the percentage of being prosecuted. >> like i said, 30 of the 83 is one person and so those 30 are cleared and we have solved other crimes. we have not solved others. we're still working on that case and we need the public's help on these things. these are very difficult situations because in addition to the reported hate crimes

that meet the statutory evidence of what constitutes a hate crime, we know the incidents are happening day in and day out and i want to take this as an opportunity to encourage everybody to report these types of incidents. report crime. there are no areas to report in crime. so we solve many of them. we don't solve all of them, but we need to work with our community members and the people standing behind me to support this effort to make sure we don't have those events in our city and if we do, people are held accountable swiftly with all the might of the world behind it. thank you. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> yeah. we did put out a press release. i do have that information. so we can get it to you. >> reporter: and then for an individual like that,

[inaudible] ? >> like everybody else, he has the right to it a fair trial. he's in jail right now. so that's important as well. we'll see what the outcome in, but he is in jail right now. okay. thank you. >> one last question. >> reporter: [inaudible] so i wanted to ask people usually meant a hate crime is usually closely in line from the [inaudible] but the hate [inaudible] what kind of behavior? >> thank you for your question, the question is about hate crimes versus hate incidents and what qualifies as a hate crime for something that might still be a hate incident which does not necessarily qualify as a hate crime. there are specific definitions under the law and the facts

must meet the threshold of that law to qualify as a hate crime. i encourage us to use that hate crime statute. that's a tool that we have to do what chief scott and some of our speakers were talking about earlier to make sure that people know that there is no room for hate, not here, not anywhere not know, not ever and so that's what they're there for. as far as hate incidents, i know there's debate, dialog, and discussion right now about maybe potentially changing some of those definitions, but might still be a hate based incident. and as tools, if they come online, they should be utilized

as well. it's encumbent on all of us. and there's multiple dimensions to this. we need to make sure we're focusing on prevention as well from occurring in the first place and there's been some great work being done right here in san francisco, having some of our seniors who might be vulnerable so that a hate crime can be supported as well. so critical and so important and even if they're a victim of a hate incident, they're support so i think that's an ongoing debate about what we can do to address nonhate crimes, but it's encumbent upon us to use every tool in the

tool box and that hate is unacceptable. period. end of story. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> yes, they did. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> no it does not. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> yeah. i'm happy to respond to that. san francisco is a major city, it's a city that has challenges of a major city and what we have tried to do is to put policies in place to combat those challenges.

that when they see the amazing golden gate bridge and they see this beautiful home and this library you feel good when you walk through the door. there's a lot of beauty, but within that beauty, there's a lot of diversity and here in san francisco, what we do is we talk about that diversity as a strength of our city. how amazing it is that you could be in visitation valley and then you can just go right over the hill and be in the bayview hunter's point. you can go to chinatown. you can go to little italy. all these different neighborhoods and have a completely different experience. so i think that san francisco we should be celebrating and highlighting the beauty, the uniqueness although as one of

the densest cities in the country but most importantly, that should not take away from the beauty of this city and how amazing it is. thank you all so much for joining us.

good morning everyone. who loves transit in san francisco? oh, my gosh, everybody loves transit. who had a great ride? who had a problematic ride? that's actually a pretty good. that's okay. that's good. hi, ktvu. so i am rafael