Hate Crime Reports Rise 25% in County

Reported hate crimes in Los Angeles County rose 25% in 1996, the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations reported Thursday, a dramatic figure that experts attribute to better reporting by law enforcement agencies and demographic shifts in several cities.

Officials with the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations stressed that the figures are not cause for alarm and instead can be linked to improved public awareness and a willingness to report crimes that would have been overlooked in years past.

A hate crime is generally defined as an assault or threat against a person that is motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or disability.

In the San Fernando Valley area, reported hate crimes increased nearly 18%, with a disproportionate share of attacks occurring in Van Nuys and in the Antelope Valley.

The commission’s 17th annual report, “Hate Crime in Los Angeles County,” stated that African Americans in Lancaster, Van Nuys and Palmdale and homosexuals in North Hollywood were the primary targets of attacks locally.

Incidents in Van Nuys and the Antelope Valley increased so sharply from 1995 to 1996 that the report identified the areas as two of the county’s four “hate crime clusters.” The clusters, the study said, were characterized by the displacement of one dominant population group by another.

“In Lancaster/Palmdale and Van Nuys, hate crime is characterized by white perpetrators and African American victims,” the study said.

Other clusters of racially motivated crimes were recorded in the Harbor Gateway and Westchester. The Long Beach and Hollywood areas emerged as pockets of hostility toward gays, according to the report.

Commission members cautioned the public not to become alarmed at the statistics, which include a 51% rise in hate crimes against blacks. They explained that the report “does not say it has become open season on African Americans.”

They said it more accurately reflects blacks’ facing increased animosity as they move to areas once populated by other ethnic groups. Also, better English skills and access to authorities make them more likely to report crimes than Asians and Latinos, commissioners said.

In the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, reports of hate crimes increased from 190 to 224--a 17.9% rise from 1995 to ’96.

For the San Fernando Valley, hate crime reports rose from 157 to 172, or 9.6%.

Experts said the rise in hate crimes in the Antelope Valley and Van Nuys areas is probably linked to recent migratory patterns--large numbers of blacks moving from South-Central Los Angeles to areas where there traditionally have been few.

“In areas like the San Fernando Valley, you are seeing communities transformed ethnically,” said Ali Modares, a professor of geography and urban analysis at Cal State Los Angeles.

The county survey found that reported hate crimes in Van Nuys increased from 15 in 1995 to 34 in 1996, with 26 of those based on race.

In Sunland, hate crimes rose from 9 to 16--14 racially motivated, according to the report.

In Glendale, a city known for its proactive reporting system, hate crimes dropped from 11 to 7.

In the Antelope Valley, the number of hate crimes surged from 18 to 40, including a string of high-profile attacks on African Americans last summer.

Of the 24 such crimes committed against African Americans in Lancaster and Palmdale, 16 were assaults with a deadly weapon, assaults or battery. Twenty of the suspected assailants were white.

Late last year, a community hot line was established in the Antelope Valley and eight skinhead gang members were prosecuted and convicted of several attacks.

“I think we’ve eliminated the eight to 10 major players that contributed to the problem,” said Carla Arranaga of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office hate crime unit.

Reports of racially motivated attacks, combined with a 43% increase in reported hate crimes against gays and bisexuals and continuing hate crimes against Jews on the Westside, had commissioners urging reforms.

Of the 995 hate crimes reported, 539 were classified as racial, 338 as sexual-orientation offenses and the rest were apparently motivated by religion or gender.

The report called on the county Board of Supervisors to grant the commission $500,000 to target problem areas for a conflict-resolution effort that would include law enforcement agencies, businesses, churches and community groups.

“The report is shocking,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the north Los Angeles County area, including the Antelope Valley and portions of the San Fernando Valley. “It is disturbing that we have a civilized society in which attacks of this nature are occurring.”

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents most of the San Fernando Valley, declined to comment on the report.

Joel Bellman, a spokesman for Yaroslavsky, said the Human Relations Commission, which received $958,000 for fiscal 1996-97, will have to appeal for the money during budget hearings in early May.

“I am not minimizing their findings,” he said. “They are a high-priority agency. But there simply is not enough to go around.”

He pointed out that the commission is a monitoring agency and that other organizations within the cash-strapped county, such as the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department, also fight hate crimes.

But despite more diligent recording of the crimes by law enforcement, the report said that some police still ignore isolated incidents of hate crimes because of interagency rivalries, public image concerns for their patrol areas and a desire to dodge the additional investigation needed to document the offenses.

The report called for law enforcement to beef up hate crime guidelines. Robin Toma, a spokesman for the commission, said the Los Angeles Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department were among the agencies where such underreporting occurred.

Cmdr. Tim McBride of the LAPD said each station has a hate crime coordinator and that department policy requires every hate crime to be reported.

But he acknowledged that the department has also discovered incidents of underreporting.

“We have made great strides in reporting and investigating hate crimes. They’re viewed very seriously . . . and we will ensure that this organization does everything possible to protect people from them,” he said.

Deputy William E. Martin, a spokesman for Sheriff Sherman Block, said the department has dramatically increased reporting and deterred hate crimes through community-based policing efforts.

“We’re not ignoring this. We realize the gravity of the situation,” he said.