Crime and Safety
Rep. Chu with first responders during National Night Out.
Crime and Safety
I am committed to keeping our communities safe. As legislators, it is essential that we are listening to our communities about what they need and how our resources can be best spent to maintain that safety, as well as ensuring that law enforcement is equipped with the resources to mitigate crime. I believe San Gabriel Valley residents and all Americans deserve to feel safe in their homes, schools, workplaces, and communities. Our criminal justice system must be designed to hold violent criminals accountable for their actions and invest in prevention, so crime doesn’t occur in the first place.
That is why I have and will continue to work through the federal appropriations process to secure funding that will make our communities safer. Specifically, in Fiscal Year 2023, I secured $1.5 million for the San Gabriel Valley Mobile Crisis Program, which would establish alternative mobile crisis response teams to respond to and improve the outcomes of non-violent service calls and proactively engage youth on mental health. This program not only ensures that a mental health approach is being employed for those facing mental and behavioral emergencies, but it also frees up law enforcement resources so they can respond to the crises they are trained to address.
Ensuring law enforcement officers have the infrastructure and resources needed to do their jobs properly also keeps our communities safe. This is why, for Fiscal Year 2024, I secured $225,000 for the City of San Gabriel Emergency Operations Center so that firefighters and first responders have the resources to respond rapidly to disasters our region is prone to, like wildfires and earthquakes. I also secured $1.5 million to renovate and restore a local Fire Station in Monterey Park.
Police Reform and Accountability
I also believe reforms to policing to increase accountability and decrease violence are necessary to holding law enforcement accountable and keeping our community members safe.
That is why, in the 117th Congress, I was an original cosponsor of H.R.8525 - the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and was so proud to vote in favor of this bill when it passed the House during the 117th Congress. This landmark legislation would hold bad actors accountable in the courts by removing barriers to prosecute law enforcement misconduct. It would also establish a framework to prevent and remedy racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels, and importantly would limit the unnecessary use of force and restrict the use of no-knock warrants, chokeholds, and carotid holds.
Finding ways to reduce juvenile crime rates and keep our youth from ever entering the system is also a priority of mine. I support policies that will shift our country away from the ineffective policies of punishment and incarceration, and towards proposals devoted to prevention and intervention. Gun Violence
The United States is the only country in the world where mass shootings continually happen – whether it be in schools, grocery stores, malls, hospitals, parades, and even in our own communities. On January 21,2023, the eve of Lunar New Year, a disturbed shooter entered the Star Dance Studio in my hometown of Monterey Park. What was supposed to be a celebratory time was cut short, when the shooter took 11 of our neighbors’ lives and seriously wounded 9 others. We must never forget these important members of our community —immigrants who loved, danced, and lived fully. And while this shooting tore a hole in the heart of our community, I have been inspired and uplifted by the unyielding resilience of the Monterey Park and surrounding community every day since.
After the mass shooting in Monterey Park, we learned that many of our neighbors, especially those whose first language isn’t English, were not aware of the gun violence prevention resources available to them, including how to exercise “red flag laws.” These laws allow family members to petition law enforcement to remove guns from individuals who pose a danger to themselves and others. As a result, I introduced H.R. 4780, the Language Access to Gun Violence Prevention Strategies Act, and H.R. 4854, the Fair Legal Access Grants (FLAG) Act in the 118th Congress, and will soon be reintroducing these bills this Congress. This legislative package would assist family members and other community members in navigating the complicated legal system when seeking to temporarily disarm someone showing signs of violence. By ensuring more communities have in the tools to prevent gun violence, we will help honor the Americans we’ve lost in cities and towns across the country.
I have also focused my efforts on promoting additional policies that keep guns out of dangerous hands. I voted to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in the 117th Congress, the first major piece of gun legislation to pass Congress in nearly 30 years! This expands access to mental health services, creates enhanced background checks for buyers under 21, closes the “boyfriend loophole”, and includes the first-ever federal law to make gun trafficking and straw purchases distinct federal crimes for the first time. While this law will save lives, we must do more to address the epidemic of gun violence in our communities. That’s why I’m also a proud original cosponsor of H.R. 3115, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023, which would prohibit the sale, transfer, manufacture, and importation of semiautomatic weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices nationwide. Weapons of war have no place in our communities.
Hate Crimes
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased instances of xenophobia and violence against AANHPI communities nationwide, which was only exacerbated by former President Donald Trump’s use of the terms “Chinese virus,” “Wuhan virus,” “China plague,” and “Kung Flu” to refer to COVID-19. The CDC and World Health Organization continually warned against associating the virus with a specific geographic location or ethnicity due to the stigma it causes. And the numbers don’t lie. Since March 2020, over 11,000 anti-Asian hate incidents have been reported, and anti-Asian hate crimes increased by a staggering 339-percent from 2020-2021.
In response to this alarming rise in hate, President Biden signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act in May 2021. By creating positions at the Department of Justice to better track and address hate crimes, we will be better equipped to respond and report these unacceptable instances of injustice, and work to prevent them from occurring again in the future. I am so proud that it included the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act I led with Congressman Don Beyer, which provides resources to state and local law enforcement to help address anti-Asian hate.
In the 117th Congress, I also led H.Res. 275, a resolution condemning the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shootings where a 21-year-old white gunman, Robert Aaron Long, shot and killed eight people at three separate Asian-owned spas in the Atlanta, Georgia, in a hate crime spree targeting Asian women.
Gun Violence
I believe that as a nation, we are not doing enough to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who seek to cause harm in our communities. The epidemic of mass shootings show us how dangerous it can be when guns land in the wrong hands. Enough is enough. That's why I support giving the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the authority to research gun violence, reinstating the assault weapons ban, preventing those who are on the No-Fly list from being able to buy a gun, and instituting criminal background checks for every gun sale. Implementing these common-sense steps to prevent gun violence, that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly support, will make our country a safer place for all of us and our future generations.