Office of Racial Equity supports H.118, urges broader steps to prevent hate crimes

The Vermont Office of Racial Equity told the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 10 it supports H.118 as passed by the House while urging lawmakers to take additional steps to prevent hate crimes.

The testimony, delivered by Angela Lazo Jimenez, policy staff at the Office of Racial Equity, said the bill’s recognition of group impact and its move toward person-centered terminology are important but only “one step” in a broader strategy to reduce violence and fear among historically marginalized communities.

Lazo Jimenez opened with personal context and local examples, saying discriminatory threats create fear beyond the individual victims. “These kind of things happen in our state,” she said, recounting an incident in which a neighbor threatened to burn a Latino family’s house and statements urging “Latino people should go to their original countries.” She also referenced an attack on Palestinian students in Burlington as illustrative of how incidents spread fear across communities.

She cited state-level statistics she said show an increase in reported hate incidents, saying hate crimes rose from 41 incidents in 2021 to 52 in 2023 and that race-, ethnicity- and ancestry-based incidents increased from 30 to 34. The office therefore supports the bill’s emphasis on group impact, Lazo Jimenez said.

But she urged lawmakers to pair statutory changes with education and prevention. “We do believe as an office that it's important to start having those conversations around topics such as white supremacy, gun violence, and hate speech,” Lazo Jimenez said. She cited research identifying white supremacy as a driver that escalates hate and recommended complementary measures including training, public education and community engagement.

Lazo Jimenez also discussed gun-violence links, citing the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions and saying Vermont’s overall gun-death rate rose about 30 percent from 2013 to 2022. She listed potential policy tools described in that research, including firearm purchaser licensing, domestic-violence protection orders, secure-storage practices, limits on public carry, and community violence intervention programs that emphasize restorative approaches.

On online hate speech, she pointed to the Sentinel Project and its Hatebase database as a tool to monitor trigger words and provide early-warning indicators of possible real-world violence. She also referenced United Nations guidance endorsing counter-narratives and pluralistic journalism as mitigation strategies.

Committee members asked for examples of community violence intervention programs; Lazo Jimenez described them in general terms as restorative, focused on fixing harm and addressing structural drivers such as mental-health needs and socioeconomic conditions rather than prison-focused responses. She did not provide program names during the hearing.

The testimony concluded with a reiteration of support for H.118 and a call for broader, coordinated prevention efforts: “We really appreciate this bill and support it, but we believe that it's important to start having those conversations that will lead us to prevent hate crimes from happening.”

The committee indicated it was prepared to move the bill forward for a vote later in the session; no formal committee roll-call on H.118 appears in the transcript of this hearing.

— Ending note: Lazo Jimenez closed by offering solidarity with victims of hate crimes across Vermont and by urging legislators to consider complementary policies and education initiatives to reduce harm and create safer communities.