Rally Calls for Tough Hate-Crime Legislation

Marking the first anniversary of the shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Center and the killing of a Filipino American postal worker, activists rallied 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, allegedly by neo-Nazi Buford O. Furrow Jr., on Aug. 10, 1999.

Before Ileto was killed in a Chatsworth driveway, Furrow allegedly opened fire at the community center, wounding four children and a receptionist. Police say Furrow has confessed to carrying out the community center shooting as a “wake-up call” for Americans to kill Jews. His trial is set for February.

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

Dubbed the Unity Over Hate Rally, the event at Pierce College was sponsored by the San Fernando Valley Hate Crimes Alliance, the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission and various elected officials.

“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 U.S. 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. The legislation would enable federal prosecution of hate crimes in states where no hate crime statutes exist. It also would expand the categories in the law to include crimes based on sexual orientation, gender or disability.

The legislation passed 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.

Donna Finkelstein, whose then 16-year-old daughter was shot at the community center, said she “knew right away it was a hate crime, that some Jew-hater, some anti-Semite had tried to kill my daughter.”

In the year since, Finkelstein has become a gun control activist.

Getting involved, she said, “helped get my family back on track.”