The Right Response to Hate

With the August shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Center seared into the public’s consciousness, it may come as no surprise that hate crimes reported in the San Fernando Valley were up 22% last year.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which compiles the statistics, attributes some of the increase to demographic changes that brought people of different backgrounds closer together, with sometimes ugly results. An offense is considered a hate crime when bias or prejudice against the victim played a substantial factor in the commission of the crime. A hate crime goes beyond derogatory words or epithets.

There were 56 hate crimes reported in the LAPD’s Van Nuys Division, 49 each in the Devonshire and West Valley areas, 29 in the Foothill Division and 23 in North Hollywood.

But while the numbers call for a community response, they also signal that the community is responding.

Police believe that a part of the increase is not a rise in the number of incidents but in the public’s--and the Police Department’s--awareness of them. And awareness is how a community begins to put an end to hate crimes.

The LAPD last year revamped its reporting procedures by better training officers to recognize hate incidents and decentralizing its data collection. The improvements enable police to notice patterns and, if necessary, to step up patrols around potential targets, such as churches or synagogues.

The public, too, has grown in awareness and may be more likely to report hate crimes, especially after the shootings last August that left a Filipino American postal worker dead and five people, including three young boys, wounded.

Acts of vandalism and harassment are far more common forms of hate crimes. But violence is implicit in the ugly symbolism of burning crosses and painted swastikas. And hate-crime experts have learned that the perpetrators often move on to more violent hate crimes, especially if emboldened by not being caught.

Continued awareness and stepped-up reporting, then, are among the goals of the newly formed San Fernando Valley Hate Crimes Alliance, which is made up of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, the county Human Relations Commission, the Anti-Defamation League and the LAPD, with support from local organizations and politicians. The alliance will meet for the first time Monday night in Tujunga, with later meetings planned in each of the Valley’s five LAPD divisions. The public’s participation is not only welcome, it is vitally important.

To Take Action: The San Fernando Valley Hate Crimes Alliance will meet Monday at 7 p.m. at Verdugo Hills High School, 10625 Plainview Ave., Tujunga. The alliance also has established a hate crimes hotline, (818) 464-3339.