Tackling the Haters

The nation has been rocked by a series of hate crimes in recent weeks: the burning of synagogues in Sacramento, the murders of gay men in Redding and the shootings of African Americans, Asians and Jews in the Midwest. These were crimes against people based simply on who they are and what they look like. Such crimes hurt not only the individual, they are crimes against society, blows against the ideals of equality that this nation should hold most sacred.

There are often signposts for hate crimes, and new investigatory practices in use nationally and locally can help spot them. Right now, for example, the effort to bring the Los Angeles Police Department into the Information Age with the help of civilian computer experts may offer a payoff. Hate crime incidents are now stored on the department’s recently opened Hate Crime Monitoring System. It enables investigators to sort through reported crimes and incidents citywide. This technique can illuminate a pattern of incidents and lead police to be extra vigilant around potential targets such as churches or synagogues.

The fact that law enforcement has also begun to work more closely with academic experts is welcome. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the LAPD, for example, have cooperated on a UCLA research study that has identified clusters of hate crimes in the Antelope Valley, Sunland-Tujunga and the northwest San Fernando Valley, as well as in Hawaiian Gardens, Harbor Gateway and east Los Angeles County. Sheriff’s Department territory near Lancaster has been especially troubled by the Nazi Lowriders, a group linked to racially motivated assaults and shootings.

Human relations commissions in Los Angeles and Orange counties monitor hate crimes as reported by police agencies and compile an annual list. They are helped by people like Huntington Beach Police Sgt. R.K. Miller, who tracks skinheads and their white supremacist philosophy and regularly contacts national groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League, for updates of hate groups.

Last year, the Cypress Police Department publicized attacks on Latinos by gang members, including a man said to belong to a white supremacist group.

Federal and local authorities are right to plumb the workings of two so-called white supremacist church groups suspected of having influenced the perpetrators in the Redding and Indiana-Illinois cases. Members of one such group, the World Church of the Creator, are being questioned about what they may have known about the suspect in the Indiana-Illinois shootings before they occurred.

There is always a fine line to walk in protecting the free speech rights of noxious hate groups, but there is no protection for inciting violent acts.

For example, what exactly does the leader of the Creator church mean when he exhorts followers to “strive harder” or “we will condemn our children to a world of inferiority and savagery at the hands of our racial enemies....Take action now and save this planet! RAHOWA.” The acronym is said to refer to “racial holy war.”

Would heightened monitoring activities have saved the lives of Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder of the Redding area, Ricky Byrdsong of Evanston, Ill., Won-Joon Yoon of Bloomington, Ind., and prevented the wounding of nine others? We cannot be sure. What is certain is that good people must do more than shake their heads and shrug when bigots attack. Vigilance by law enforcement is merely the first step.