California Governor Gavin Newsom recently announced appointments to the Commission on the State of Hate. The Commission will assess data on hate crimes in California, provide resources for victims, and make policy recommendations to better protect civil rights. One appointee is Dr. Erroll Southers, USC Associate Senior Vice President of Safety and Risk Assurance and the former Director of the Safe Communities Institute.
“As a state and as a nation, we face a rising threat environment created by extremist narratives and the people who espouse them,” said Dr. Southers. “This is a multi-dimensional problem, and the approaches to reducing hate, promoting tolerance, and preventing violence are necessarily complex. Identifying those solutions requires collaboration, and I am honored to work alongside consummate experts and leading practitioners as an appointee to the Commission on the State of Hate. This is an opportunity for us to help the state and the country track and study hate crimes and extremist violence and develop the policy solutions that can lead to a safer and more peaceful society.”
Established through the CA 2022 Budget Act, the Commission is the first of its kind to monitor and track hate crimes and recommend policy to the governor, state legislature, and state agencies. Other appointees include: Cynthia Choi, Co-Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action; Brian Levin, Founding Director at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism; Bamby Salcedo, President and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition; and Shirin Sinnar, a professor at Stanford Law School.