‘Hate Crime That Wasn’t’ Inspiration for Fund

City leaders are moving ahead with the Fund to Fight Hate Crimes, though the incident that inspired it turned out to be gang-related.

Outraged by reports of an alleged skinhead attack in Huntington Beach on Oct. 30 against a Latino high school student, Councilman Ralph H. Bauer offered a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators.

Bauer used the reward to launch a permanent hate crime reward fund.

Police investigators say they now suspect that the student was attacked by a rival gang member.

“Apparently, this was not what it seemed to be,” Bauer said. “It’s the hate crime that wasn’t.”

But Bauer said the time has come to take more aggressive action to counter the city’s image as a place hostile to minorities.

“After this latest incident, a reporter asked me, ‘How you feel about being a council member in the skinhead capital of the world?’ ” Bauer said. “I felt that there must be some positive way of responding, to let the public know that our community really abhors this kind of thing.”

The city adopted a human dignity statement at an Oct. 22 conference attended by 400 participants.

The Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force will hold a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall to form an organization to administer the reward fund and support school programs to fight racism.

“It is the birth of a movement in this city,” Bauer said. “We do not want to be viewed as a place where skinheads hang out, but as a refuge where people know they will be treated well.”

Councilwoman Shirley S. Dettloff said the reward fund should send a strong message that hate crimes will not be tolerated in the city.

“We’re making it very clear that the police are going to be on top of this,” Dettloff said, “and that the citizens as a whole in this city are outraged by this kind of behavior.”