Rally Held to Protest Hate Crimes

Marking the first anniversary of the shootings at North Valley Jewish Community Center and the slaying of a Filipino American postal worker, local activists held a rally Sunday to demand tougher gun control and hate crime laws.

“It’s time for us to lead this nation into a hate-free society,” said Ismael Ileto, whose brother, Joseph, was shot and killed Aug. 10, 1999, allegedly by neo-Nazi Buford O. Furrow.

Before Ileto was killed in a Chatsworth driveway, Furrow allegedly wounded four children and a 68-year-old receptionist at the community center. Investigators say Furrow has confessed to carrying out the community center shooting as a “wake-up call” for Americans to kill Jews. Furrow is slated to go on trial in February.

“It’s time for our elected officials to carry out our mission,” Ismael Ileto said. “Tell them how important this issue is. If they give you the brushoff, ask when [they] are up for reelection.”

Sunday’s “Unity Over Hate Rally” was sponsored by the San Fernando Valley Hate Crimes Alliance, the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission and local elected officials. About 150 people attended the rally at Swisher Park on the Pierce College campus.

“A year ago a man came into our community with hate in his heart and explosives and firearms in his van with the goal of ripping us apart,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks). “We are here today and we are more unified than ever.”

Sherman urged participants to lobby their representatives in Washington to support the Federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would allow federal prosecution of hate crimes in states where no hate crime statutes exist. In addition, it would expand the groups included in the current federal hate crime law--which only covers hate crimes based on race, religion, national origin and color. The new law would add hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender and disability.

The legislation passed in the Senate this year. But Sherman said the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has refused to give the bill a hearing on the floor of the House.

“It’s important that federal law enforcement gets involved at the earliest possible stage,” Sherman said.

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Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks told those at the rally that the shootings at the North Valley community center was an “attack against our entire community.”

Hate crimes are a serious problem in the city, he said.

“There is rarely a morning when I don’t get a report about a hate crime in Los Angeles,” Parks said. “We have to keep the education and the prevention alive.”

Ismael Ileto said that in the last year his family has endured the death of both his brother and his father.

“It’s one thing to lose a father to a heart attack,” Ileto said. “It’s another to lose a brother from a senseless act of violence and hatred.”

Donna Finkelstein, who’s then 16-year-old daughter, Mindy, was among those shot at the community center, said that she knew her daughter had been the victim of a hate crime as she drove to the hospital.

“I knew right away it was a hate crime, that some Jew-hater, some anti-Semite had tried to kill my daughter,” Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein has since become a gun control activist and become involved in organizing the Million Mom March Against Gun Violence, held in May in Washington.

Getting involved in such events “helped get my family back on track,” Finkelstein said.