Hate Crimes Rose 25% in ‘92, Study Finds : Prejudice: Coalition recorded 156 such instances last year. African-Americans, although relatively few in the county, were victimized the most, followed by Asians and homosexuals.

Crimes motivated by hatred of minorities or homosexuals increased more than 25% last year in Orange County, according to a study released Friday by the Hate Crime Network, a coalition of the Human Relations Commission and every police agency in the county.

African-Americans were the most targeted group, although they represent only 2% of the county’s population, followed by Asians and then gays.

“For the last three years, blacks have been the group most victimized,” said Rusty Kennedy, director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission. “I can’t tell you the reason why. Who knows what goes on in the minds of people who commit these crimes.”

The study was made from police reports and calls to the Human Relations Commission from the public, Kennedy said.

Of the 156 hate crimes reported in 1992, 42 were committed against African-Americans, 36 against Asians, 27 against gays, 17 against Jews and eight against Latinos. Anglos, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Middle Easterners, Asian Indians and other ethnic or religious groups reported at least one incident.

The Hate Crime Network was formed two years ago when local police officials convened with the Human Relations Commission with a mutual concern that the 16 hate crimes reported in the county in 1990 were “just the tip of the iceberg,” Kennedy said. “There were many more incidents, but they just weren’t reporting them.”

Once the network formed, the number of recorded hate crimes jumped to 125 in 1991.

Kennedy said the group was created to build a network between victims and law enforcement officials and to ensure a response to each hate crime.

“It’s to share and document information and explore certain issues,” Kennedy said. “We are a violence-prevention group.”

Already in 1993, one of the most vicious hate crimes in Orange County history occurred on Jan. 9, when a 55-year-old man was beaten unconscious on a stretch of beach behind three gay bars in Laguna Beach. An 18-year-old San Clemente High School student, Jeff Michael Raines, has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault.

And this week, students arriving at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach found a Nazi flag flying in front of the school and two facsimiles of swastikas.

“Apparently someone raised a Nazi flag between 6 and 6:30 a.m.,” said Police Lt. Luis Ochoa of Huntington Beach. “They also made swastikas on the grass with some baseball chalk in front of the school.”

Gayle Byrne, a teacher at Ocean View, said the 10-foot swastikas were difficult to remove from the wet grass near the school entrance on Gothard Street.

“These were not kids who were responsible for this. It was a sophisticated effort,” Byrne said. “A lot of kids were upset and disgusted over it.”

In December, Nazi flyers were placed in a section of lockers at Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, and in Cypress, vandals wrote “White Power” on the walls of a condominium complex.

Kennedy blamed fear of large immigrations of different ethnic groups for the continuous rise in hate crimes.

“Throughout Orange County there are large Asian and Latino people moving in large numbers, and that causes fears for many people here who don’t want change,” he said.

“There isn’t an area in the county that hasn’t been touched by these types of crimes. Our goal is to make law enforcement agencies aware of what is going on so they can devise ways to handle the problem.”

Hate Crimes Number of hate crimes committed against some Orange County groups in 1992: African-Americans: 42 Asians: 36 Gays, lesbians: 27 Jews: 17 Latinos: 8 Others: 26 Source: Orange County Hate Crime Network