hate

WASHINGTON  — Less than a week before eight people — including six Asian women — were killed in the Atlanta-area shootings congressional Democrats introduced legislation that would bolster the Department of Justice’s ability to address COVID-19 hate crimes.

The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), has been co-sponsored by more than 60 lawmakers and on Friday was endorsed by President Biden, who condemned the “ongoing crisis of gender-based and anti-Asian violence” and urged Congress to “swiftly pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.”

“It’s time for Congress to codify and expand upon these actions — because every person in our nation deserves to live their lives with safety, dignity and respect,” Biden said.

The bill would require at least one Department of Justice employee to facilitate fast reviews of federal, state and local COVID-19 hate crimes for at least a year, according to a draft provided by a Hirono spokeswoman.

It would also require the department to issue guidance to state and local law enforcement agencies on how to establish an online hate crime reporting system in multiple languages.

The system would “allow more victims to come forward,” A.B. Cruz III, president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Assn., said in a statement.

The bill would also require Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to work with the COVID–19 Health Equity Task Force and advocates to give guidance on how to discuss the pandemic without using incendiary language.

The bill would not drastically change the legal landscape as it relates to hate crimes but would spotlight how it intersects with COVID-19, said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University College of Law.

Since virus-fueled lockdowns went into effect last March, thousands of Asian Americans have reported having faced racist verbal and physical attacks or have been shunned by others, according to a report by Stop AAPI Hate. The group, whose acronym stands for Asian American and Pacific Islander, received reports of 3,795 incidents over the last year, with 68.1% involving verbal harassment and 11.1% involving physical assaults.

Among the incidents, Asian Americans reported being punched while riding the subway in Washington, taunted with racial slurs in New York and coughed on while being blamed for the novel coronavirus in Dallas.

Then-President Trump last year said little to discourage the attacks but often used racist language to describe the deadly virus, calling it “kung flu” and the “China virus,” even after being warned that his rhetoric was incendiary. Meng said many Republican lawmakers “trafficked racist, bigoted terms to describe COVID-19.”

“In doing so, their language stoked people’s fears and created an atmosphere of intolerance and violence, which persists even today,” Meng said.

The bill would define COVID-19 hate crimes as violent offenses motivated by the real or perceived relationship to the spread of the coronavirus and the real or perceived background of a person, including their ethnicity and national origin.

Kreis said it’s unclear how adding a COVID-19 distinction to a federal hate crime would benefit existing law. The law, in practice, draws connections between current events and discrimination. For example, the law can already be used to prosecute crimes against LGBTQ people whose attackers express anti-HIV/AIDS sentiments, he said.

Kreis said that though anti-Asian slurs are seen as an expression of hate by the American public and, by extension, juries, anti-Asian imagery is not as noticeable in American society. This often requires prosecutors to handhold juries to connect the dots to understand what hate crimes against Asian Americans look like, he said.

“We need a lot more cultural competency in the ways in which anti-Asian stereotypes can manifest,” Kreis said. “That’s a hard endeavor we as a society need to tackle.”

Times staff writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

Aug. 19 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors have charged a man from the Bronx with hate crime offenses alleging he assaulted a security guard and a congregant in a racially motivated attack at a Manhattan synagogue last week.

Larry Montes was arrested following the alleged attack at Central Synagogue on Friday and was charged by New York State.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department charged him with two counts of committing hate crimes, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, and one count of damage to religious property resulting in bodily injury, which carries a maximum 20 years’ imprisonment.

“These charges serve as notice that the Department of Justice will intervene to protect the public in the face of antisemitic and racially motivated attacks,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

According to the complaint, Montes was allegedly among some 375 people who attended Shabbat service Friday night at the synagogue. During the service, he is alleged to have stood up and begun shouting and then struck two ceremonial silver candlesticks, which were damaged.

As a security guard attempted to remove Montes from the building, Montes allegedly uttered profanities about those in attendance and allegedly punched a woman.

After being handcuffed, he allegedly looked at a Black security guard cursed and called him a racial slur, before spitting on and head-butting the security guard.

During an interview with law enforcement, Montes allegedly issued antisemitic statements.

As of the end of July, there were 360 hate crime incidents committed in New York City, 205 of which were motivated by anti-Jewish bias, according to the city statistics.

Aug. 15 (UPI) — A man in New York was arrested on hate crime charges after disrupting a Shabbat service and allegedly injuring a congregant in a Manhattan synagogue on Friday, police said.

Larry Montes, 46 of the Bronx, was arrested at Central Synagogue in the Upper East Side and charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of criminal mischief as a hate crime.

“As synagogue security was escorting him out, he struck a member of the congregation, damaged synagogue property, and then spit at and headbutted a member of the security team,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement on X.

Amid the confusion, there were shouts of panic as people in the synagogue scrambled, CNN reported.

One congregant, a 63-year-old woman, suffered a cut to her lip and injuries to her right forearm, according to the news outlet.

“Every New Yorker must be able to observe their religion without fear of violence,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on X. “This despicable act has no place in our city, and our administration will do everything in our power to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe.”

As of August, 360 hate crimes were reported in the city this year, including 205 targeting Jewish people, The New York Times reported.

Sources told CNN that Montes has a history of mental health issues.

Tarik Skubal is a Dodger.

The five words every baseball soul outside of Los Angeles dreaded hearing.

The Dodgers are going to three-peat.

The six words that every baseball soul everywhere must now acknowledge.

It’s over. The chase for baseball’s best pitcher, the hunt by baseball’s best team, the pennant race, the World Series, all of it.

It’s over. The Dodgers just stole it all again, three months early but right on time, their third consecutive championship cemented when they traded for the Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal, the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner and quite simply the best pitcher in baseball.

Everybody wanted him. The Dodgers were the only team with enough assets to get him. Of course they were. They always are.

And in return, they surely will win a third consecutive championship against a withering and overmatched group of pretenders that could add Skubal only in their dreams.

He cost the Dodgers minor leaguers Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith. So? None of the three is considered a top-five Dodgers prospect in what appears to be a scandalously one-sided deal.

He could be a free agent this winter and may cost $400 million to retain. So? The Dodgers have that much in their couch cushions.

The Dodgers’ injury-scarred rotation needed a stud starting pitcher like Skubal and, as this column noted last month, there was no excuse for baseball’s wealthiest and smartest team not to grab him.

So the Dodgers grabbed him. Of course they did. They are rushing full bore toward that three-peat and, to the delight of the most appreciative fans in baseball, nothing is going to get in their way.

“Everything that we do is in mind with the partnership that we have with our fans, the 50,000 people that come out here every day,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, in a Sunday afternoon news conference, later adding, “And so for us, it’s about doing our part to try to back up our end as much as we can in partnership with them to hopefully have another parade.”

Friedman has won many trades in the dozen years he’s run the Dodgers, but this may be his greatest swindle yet. Think about it. He acquired the hottest pitcher on the market for three mostly unheralded prospects nearly two full days before the trade deadline.

Geez, Detroit, you think you could have taken more time to scour the market? And with the prospect-rich Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves in the mix, you think you could have done better than one good outfielder, one injury-prone 28-year-old pitcher and one anonymous dude going nowhere?

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, can’t wait to see Tarik Skubal “in Dodger blue.”

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

The Dodger player reaction was shock, disbelief then joy.

“They were fired up, obviously,” said Friedman.

Nobody was more excited than Friedman, who showed rare emotion when talking about his latest triumph.

“Watching Tarik Skubal pitch in the playoffs last year was must-see TV,” he said. “I was in awe watching the energy, the dominance he exhibited there, and I can’t wait to see it in Dodger blue.”

The rest of baseball will hate them for this. They don’t care. Critics will say this is yet another example of how they are ruining the game. They could give a rip.

A move like this — the insanely rich getting insanely richer — could be cited this winter as a reason for the game shutting down over a labor dispute. Not their problem.

With a sore Shohei Ohtani looking increasingly doubtful for a meaningful October on the mound, with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow still sidelined because of injuries, Skubal can slide into the No. 2 spot in a rotation that, if everyone gets healthy, could wind up being the best in baseball history.

Tarik Skubal was a two-time Cy Young winner for the Detroit Tigers.

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

Of course, in the immortal words of Kobe Bryant, the job is not finished.

There are still questions, even for a team that has all the answers.

Skubal is a tremendous postseason pitcher, with a 2.04 ERA in six starts, but will his surgically repaired left elbow survive through his third postseason?

After pushing 200 innings the last two seasons, he underwent a newfangled minimally invasive procedure on May 6 to remove a loose body from his elbow. Recovery time for a similar surgery performed the old-fashioned way is two to three months, but he was back on the mound in a game just a month later.

Will this new operation hold up? Time will tell, but the Dodgers will be holding their breath.

After Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Skubal, the Dodgers have another potentially big question. What do they do about Ohtani?

He’s got a balky knee, and now a painful biceps, and the Dodgers have kept him off the mound for a moment, but what happens in October?

By acquiring Skubal, the Dodgers can afford to pull Ohtani out of the rotation altogether and allow him to focus on hitting, which has taken a bit of a hit with the pitching issues. But would he accept such a move, which might feel like a demotion? Ohtani always has put winning first, but he also began the season openly acknowledging his quest for a Cy Young Award. So there’s that.

The Dodgers still will need some good fortune to round out the rotation.

Tarik Skubal returned to the mound in June after surgery to address an elbow issue.

(Jason Miller / Getty Images)

They say Snell and Glasnow are both on the verge of returning from what has essentially been season-long injuries. But, come October, they’ll both be 33, so believe only what you see.

Roki Sasaki has been tremendous since the All-Star break — that new glove has been a giant success — but he’s still never started a postseason game. And for all his surprise greatness this summer, Justin Wrobleski also has yet to start a postseason game.

It all could get interesting. But it shouldn’t be suspenseful.

Skubal solves all mysteries. Skubal ends all arguments. Skubal saves the summer.

The Dodgers are the most championship-driven and fan-devoted team in all of sports. They will do whatever it takes, however it takes, whenever it takes, to win.

Five words that unequivocally prove it.

Tarik Skubal is a Dodger.

July 27 (UPI) — Two locations of a Jewish-owned Toronto bakery chain were damaged overnight, authorities said Sunday, as the incidents are being investigated by Toronto Police Service’s Hate Crime Unit.

The Toronto Police Service said both locations suffered broken windows, but only one appeared to be the result of gunfire.

“At this time, investigators are examining whether the incidents are connected and working to identify those responsible,” the Toronto Police Service said in a statement.

“There have been no reported injuries.”

Founded in 1979, Kiva’s Bagel has three locations in the city.

Duty Insp. Scott Bradbury told reporters that the incidents occurred overnight, sometime between the stores’ closing Saturday and opening Sunday, when police received calls from employees reporting the damage.

Toronto police said they received a report at 8:12 a.m. EDT of a broken window apparently struck by gunfire at the Kiva’s location at Young Street and St. Clair Avenue West. Evidence of a shooting was located, police said, adding there were no reported injuries.

About 20 minutes later, police said they received a report of a broken window at the Kiva’s location at Bathurst Street and Steeles Avenue West.

“We understand that this is concerning for those that work and live in this area, especially members of the Jewish community, and we have all the resources available to thoroughly investigate this matter,” Bradbury said.

“Members of our Hate Crime, members of our guns and gangs integrated task force and our divisional units are here canvassing the area. So members of the public can be aware that there’s going to be an increased presence of police in that area conducting our investigation.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow described the incidents as “vile and unacceptable.”

“We all have a responsibility to stand against hate,” she said in an online statement.

“I will always stand with Toronto’s Jewish community against anti-Semitism.”

The incident come after Toronto recorded a sharp decline in reported hate crimes last year.

Toronto police recorded 231 hate-motivated occurrences last year, down nearly 48% from 443 in 2024.

Anti-Jewish occurrences, however, remained the most frequently reported category of hate crime, with 81 incidents, accounting for 35% of all hate crimes and 82% of all religiously motivated hate crimes.

However, police in May said there had been a “concerning” 40% increase in reported hate crimes so far in 2026, compared with the same period last year.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a statement Sunday that he was following the incidents involving the Kiva’s locations “with concern.”

“While thankfully none were injured, this is the latest attack in a long and horrifying line of violence and intimidation against the Canadian Jewish community,” he said online.

“The Canadian government must confront this anti-Semitic violent wave!”

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White has denounced the racist hate and abuse directed at Alyssa Thomas since the Phoenix Mercury forward committed a flagrant foul against star guard Caitlin Clark.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable,” White told the media before the team’s practice on Wednesday. “I think as a league as a whole, there’s been so much more toxicity, racism, homophobia — straight-out hate nonsense. And it is absolutely unacceptable.”

White attributed most of the hateful comments to online agitators rather than true WNBA or Indiana Fever fans.

“I believe this is people who are using our league, using our players, to further divisive agendas,” White said, while acknowledging that certain criticisms and fan dynamics are part of the game. “But it’s not hard to not be a jerk. If you are one of these people that are online doing this, do not call yourself a WNBA fan.”

A former Indiana Miss Basketball honoree, White played in the WNBA from 1999 to 2003, including with the Fever, before transitioning to coaching. She was previously the head coach of the Connecticut Sun — where she coached Thomas — before being hired by the Fever.

“Our league is about inclusiveness,” she continued. “Our league is about competition. Our league is about elevating — elevating women, elevating marginalized communities, and being inclusive of all different walks of life. That is what our league has always been about from day one. That is what our league will continue to be about.”

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White has denounced the racist abuse directed to Alyssa Thomas.

(Erik Rank / Associated Press)

Thomas was suspended for a game after the WNBA reviewed a viral moment that occurred during the Mercury’s 111-109 win over the Fever last Wednesday. Thomas and Clark were scrambling for a loose ball at around the 6:52 mark during the second quarter and Thomas’ fist pressed into Clark’s throat after she landed on her. No fouls were called at that time, and screenshots and video from the incident quickly made their rounds on social media. Upon review after the game, the WNBA assessed Thomas a Flagrant 2 foul.

The 13-year veteran and six-time All Star told reporters Tuesday that she has received death threats and racist abuse in the aftermath.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this over basketball,” Thomas, who had served her suspension Saturday, said. “A lot of us, myself included, didn’t even know the play took place until after the game. Now we’re being painted as thugs. There’s death threats out on us. It’s really unacceptable. It’s something that needs to change in this league and I’m just really sick and tired of it.”

She called out the WNBA and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert for not doing more to protect players off the court.

“We’re so concerned about the safety on the court, but time and time again, we’re having people threaten our lives,” Thomas said, explaining that her main concern was not the suspension itself. “Leaking addresses out there. Putting crazy pictures that have nothing to do with basketball. At some point, the league needs to [take] a stand … Time and time again, players are going through this and the league remains silent. I’m sick and tired of it. It’s time for them to step up and have our backs.”

Engelbert released a statement Tuesday night following Thomas’ comments.

“The WNBA vehemently condemns any and all forms of hate,” the widely reported statement read. “The safety and well-being of everyone in our community is always the league’s top priority. We are aware of Alyssa Thomas’ comments, and what she and her teammates have experienced is completely unacceptable and not representative of the WNBA community. The league and our security team have been in contact with the Phoenix Mercury organization and remain committed to protecting all players.”

This is not the first time Thomas has spoken out about racist abuse she and her teammates have received following a match-up against the Fever. During the 2024 playoffs, while a member of the Sun, Thomas said that she had never experienced the sort of “racial comments” or “been called the things that [she’s] been called on social media” by so-called Fever fans. The Sun eliminated the Fever that year.

Clark’s fame and popularity have often led to various talking heads, commentators and even politicians who may not regularly follow the WNBA to share their hot takes whenever a situation involves the former college phenom. The ensuing discourse and social media chatter are often divisive.

Thomas’ flagrant foul occurred two days after the teams’ chippy June 22 matchup, which saw Thomas and Clark receive technical fouls along with three other players for their involvement in a scuffle during the final frame of the Fever’s 86-77 win.

“There’s a difference between trolling, and there’s a difference between hatred,” Thomas said Tuesday of the racist slurs she and other players have received. “The hatred that we’re experiencing over a play that, honestly, was a complete accident, no one even knew it happened. It’s just unfortunate. The league has to do better in this instance.”