The Outer Limits of Prosecution : Hate crime must be combatted at all levels

Attacks against people because of their race, religion or sexual orientation occur with such appalling regularity they have their own designation: hate crimes. But hate-crime prosecution is more easily called for than done.

State law defines a hate crime as “the interference through force or threat with an individual’s civil rights” on the basis of race, religion, nationality or ethnic background. Also included are attacks on gays and lesbians.

Prosecutors need to be vigorous in pressing hate-crime charges that they can make stick, but society cannot count on the legal system alone to create a climate of tolerance.

THE LAYMAN’S VIEW: Consider last week’s gun killing in Orange County of Vernon Windell Flournoy. Sure, it was a hate crime “from a layman’s perspective,” notes Huntington Beach Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg, because one of the accused was a reputed associate of white supremacists and Flournoy was African American. Accused in the killing are Jonathan Russell Kennedy, 19, a so-called skinhead, and a 17-year-old. In addition, Kennedy is charged with the attempted murder of two Latino men last month, also in Huntington Beach.

Prosecutors are considering filing hate-crime charges in both cases, but such cases can be difficult to prove. Establishing a hate crime as defined by state law requires prosecutors to prove that a suspect deliberately targeted a victim for racial or other specified characteristics. In another case, the district attorney filed hate-crime charges in the beating death of a black woman at a La Habra mall but dropped them when further evidence showed a dispute over a parking space was one cause of the attack.

Last week, the district attorney upgraded charges in an attack on a black high school student to attempted murder but declined a hate-crime prosecution on the grounds there was insufficient evidence to prove race was a motivating factor. Although to a layman it certainly looked like a racial case, proving the case in court under the official standards is a different matter.

TEACHING OUR YOUNG: At the same time, fortunately, the Los Angeles and Orange County human relations commissions have done good work in documenting hate crimes, and private watchdog groups have been aggressive in spotlighting outrages and using civil laws where applicable to thwart hatemongers. This vigilance and good police work are necessary. But equally so is education, starting at home with instruction on diversity and the need for tolerance.

School discussions, sermons from the pulpit, community meetings sponsored by service organizations, all can help steer young people away from hate and toward a reaffirmation of democratic values. These are not easy tasks, but they are the important work we all must do in striving to build and maintain a just society, supported by effective law enforcement.

Hate-crime cases in Orange and Los Angeles counties are yet more reminders that bigotry is dangerous, and that multicultural California cannot afford to shrug off this corrosive and demoralizing evil.