King Rally Scorns Hate Crimes, War

A rally and candlelight march against hate crimes to mark the birthday Monday of Martin Luther King Jr. drew black, Latino, Jewish, Arab, homosexual and disabled civil-rights activists who fine-tuned their messages to include opposition to the war against Iraq.

Many of the 175 people who attended the event at North Hollywood Park carried signs, such as “The Worst Hate Crime is War,” that joined the two causes. Several speakers linked anti-war sentiments to the legacy of the slain civil-rights leader.

“The bombs of hatred are exploding in every corner of this city,” said Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Shir Chadash-The New Reform Congregation in Encino.

“We are going to overcome them and make our places of worship safe, and blacks and Jews and gays and all kinds of people are going to work and live together and that is our dream,” he said, employing several of King’s famous phrases.

Dolores Huerta, a vice president of the United Farm Workers, said that “what Martin Luther King wanted for us is not finished yet” and that the war against Iraq “is totally, totally unnecessary.”

As in many of the protests that have occurred in major American cities since the start of the war, she and other speakers said the billions of dollars being spent to pay for the fighting should instead go to battle homelessness, hunger, low-quality education and other social problems.

Under the leadership of President Bush, she said, “We have become a nation of war that is against people of color in this country and people of color in other countries.” She cited the examples of Grenada, which was attacked during the Reagan Administration, Panama and Iraq.

Tamara Cogan, a 17-year-old Granada Hills High School student who said she represented the Los Angeles Student Coalition, said her opposition to the war did not mean that she sided with Saddam Hussein. But, she said, by waging war “we’re not just hurting Saddam Hussein, we’re hurting thousands of people and, in that sense, it’s a hate crime.”

At least one of those in attendance disagreed with the emphasis of the event. Donna Sheree Cobbs, 33, of North Hollywood, said King’s birthday ought to be marked by a celebration of the progress that has been made in civil rights and not by renewed cries for continued struggle.

“It should be a celebration of what we all went through at that time and how far we’ve come,” said Cobbs. “They’re using . . . King’s birthday as another means of propaganda.”

The event, which preceded an interfaith worship service at the First Presbyterian Church of North Hollywood, was sponsored by a broad coalition of religious and social action groups and coordinated by the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council. It had been planned long before the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

A number of highly publicized hate crimes--including the Jan. 10 bombing of a North Hollywood synagogue and letters threatening anti-black violence against administrators at a Van Nuys high school--have occurred in the Valley in recent months. Last September, the Los Angeles County Human Relations Committee reported that hate crimes citywide during the first six months of 1990 were up 32% over the same period the previous year, although the number of such crimes in Glendale and the Valley had declined.

Deputy Chief Ronald Frankle of the Los Angeles Police Department said Monday that about 300 hate crimes occur each year throughout Los Angeles and that about half of those happen in the Valley. He said the number of such crimes handled by police is holding steady.

He said, however, that rallies such as the one Monday night deter crimes against racial, religious or homosexual groups.

Frankle also said that when such crimes have occurred in the Valley they have often brought about an outpouring of help and concern. After the bomb exploded Jan. 10 at the Yeshiva Aish HaTorah Institute in North Hollywood, for example, “offers of aid came from all segments of the community,” he said.

“It says the community is pulling together, that it cares, and doesn’t just stand off as a non-involved spectator,” Frankle said.