Spread Love Stop Hate

Cultivate Understanding.
Embrace Diversity.
Counter Hate with Love

Goals

Upholding love and justice which is at the core of Christian faith, Orange County Herald Center is committed to Spreading Love & Stopping Hate — resolving conflicts, protecting the vulnerable, strengthening the safety of individuals and communities, providing services to individuals and communities affected by hate, and supporting victims and survivors of hate crime and incidents as well as their families. By such endeavors, we wish to promote a more inclusive, harmonious, and compassionate community.

Serve

Provide services to hate affected individual and community, support victims and survivors of hate incidents and hate crimes and their families

Educate

Provide education to facilitate prevention of hate incidents and hate crimes

Train

Provide resources and trainings to strengthen individual and community responses to hate incidents and hate crimes

What is a Hate Crime?

California Penal Code 422.55 defines a hate crime as a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of one or more of the following actual or perceived characteristics of the victim. This includes: Disability, Gender, Nationality, Race or ethnicity, Religion, Sexual Orientation, and Association with a person or group of persons with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics.

California’s hate crime laws are codified in Penal Code Sections 422.55, 422.6, 422.7, and 422.75.

What is Hate Speech?

Hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color, sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin. 

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects most speech, even when it is disagreeable, offensive, or hurtful.

What is a Hate Incident?

Hate incidents are defined by the California Department of Justice as “an action or behavior motivated by hate, but legally protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of expression. If a hate incident starts to threaten a person or property, it may become a hate crime.”

Examples of hate incidents include, but are not limited to:

  • Name-calling, including racial slurs or other derogatory terminology
  • Insults
  • Distributing hate material in public places
  • Displaying hate material on private property

Criminal acts include, but are not limited to:

  • Vandalism
  • Physical Violence against the person of anotehr
  • Criminal Threats
  • Theft

What can I expect when reporting a Hate Crime or a Hate Incident?

1.

If you are making a report directly to the Irvine Police Department, you should expect a professional and compassionate uniformed police officer to respond to your location to conduct an investigation. 

2.

If the facts you are reporting meet the legal definition of a hate crime, a criminal investigation will commence. This may ultimately lead to the arrest of the involved suspect(s) and subsequent prosecution by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

3.

This may ultimately lead to the arrest of the involved suspect(s) and subsequent prosecution by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. If the event does not meet the legal definition of a hate crime, a police report will still be taken to document the circumstances surrounding the hate incident.

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