Hate Crimes Down 21% in County Last Year

Hate crimes in Orange County dropped 21% last year, including attacks by skinhead and white supremacist groups, the Orange County Human Relations Commission announced Thursday.

“I think it’s an indication that communities are not accepting this kind of behavior and are becoming more active, and people are reporting these kinds of crimes,” commission Chairman William Wood said.

The commission documented 145 “hate crimes and incidents” in 1997, compared with 183 the year before. African Americans remained the most frequently targeted victims, followed by Jews and then Asians.

Commissioner and Fullerton Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley attributed the overall decrease to aggressive prosecution by the district attorney’s office, the commission’s ongoing educational programs on tolerance, and a healthy economy that has reduced “scapegoating” against minorities.

“Every time the economy goes bad, people have to find a reason why ‘I’m out of a job,’ ” McKinley said. “And, ‘I’ll blame somebody that doesn’t look like me.’ ”

In 1992 when the economy soured, hate crimes skyrocketed against African Americans and Asians, said Rusty Kennedy, the commission’s executive director.

But Randy Jordan, former publisher of the Black Orange, a publication for African Americans, cautioned that most hate crimes go unreported.

The report didn’t take into account subtle acts of racism, Jordan said, that don’t make the police blotter.

“White-collar African Americans are being victimized, but you don’t hear about it,” he said.

The commission also credited a Huntington Beach human relations task force of City Council members, police, school administrators and students with helping to reduce the numbers.

“In Huntington Beach, the City Council challenged the community to come forward and come together and say that hate crimes are heinous, and people who are not tolerant of others are not going to be welcome in the city,” Commissioner Kenneth Inouye said.

For several years, the county has had to contend with a rash of attacks by skinheads and neo-Nazis. It worsened in 1995, when a Huntington Beach man was fatally shot outside a restaurant in that city in a racially motivated attack.

The next year, a Native American man survived a near-fatal stabbing near the Huntington Beach Pier by an attacker who had tattoos of swastikas and other racist markings.

In 1997, white teenagers remained the biggest perpetrators of hate crimes in the county.

Vandalism was the main hate crime, followed by physical assaults, verbal assaults and hate literature.

There were 35 incidents against African Americans, 32 against Jewish victims, 20 against Asians, and 15 against lesbians and gays. The commission also reported that incidents against Latinos totaled 14; whites, 10; mixed race, 10; Arab-Americans, 3; Christians, 3 and one each against Mormons, Iranians, and the disabled.

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Declining Incidents

Hate crimes in Orange County last year dropped to the lowest level since 1991. Most of the offenses involved vandalism.

Hate Crimes

1991: 126

1997: 145

1997 Crimes by Type

Vandalism: 36%

Physical assault: 27%

Verbal assault: 23%

Hate literature: 14%

Source: Orange County Human Relations Commission