Hate Crimes Down but More Violent

Hate crimes reported in Los Angeles County dropped last year to their lowest levels in a decade but were more violent than in 2002, county officials announced Thursday.

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations recorded 692 crimes believed to have been motivated by hatred last year, a 33% fall since hate crimes peaked in 2001, a record triggered by backlash from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the commission reported that assaults with deadly weapons jumped from 108 in 2002 to 151, accounting for nearly a quarter of all hate crimes. Part of that jump may be due to a rise in racist attacks in recent years by gang members on victims who are not gang members, commission staffers said.

“There have been prosecutions of gang members in different parts of the county who have basically tried to unleash campaigns of terror against people of other races,” said Marshall Wong, a senior consultant to the commission who compiled the data.

African Americans were most likely to be the victims in such attacks, Wong said. Although white biker groups and skinhead gangs were responsible for some of the violence, Latino gang members were most often the attackers, he said.

In one such episode in October 2003, two black adults and three children driving in South Los Angeles were shot at by suspected gang members, who shouted racial slurs.

The driver, Eric Butler, was fatally shot and two passengers were wounded. No arrests have been made.

Commission staffers noted that the recent rise in the most violent hate crimes followed a 35% drop the year before and said it was too early to tell whether last year’s increase is the start of a new trend.

One type of violence that has spilled over to this year involves racially motivated brawls at high schools.

In 2003, seven campuses across Los Angeles reported racial conflict, usually between black and Latino students. This year, tensions remained calm until October, when fights erupted at five high schools.

Wong said he was struck by the finding that hate crimes committed by juvenile girls were just as likely to involve violence as those by boys. Both boys and girls resorted to violence in 81% of their crimes.

In one case Wong cited, a 12-year-old Latina was attacked in Lancaster by two African American girls, ages 13 and 14, who beat her so badly that she needed hospital treatment.

While other types of religious hate crime declined, anti-Jewish incidents remained essentially level, increasing from 78 in 2002 to 79. Amanda Susskind, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said her group sought help for a couple that received Holocaust photographs from hostile neighbors.

“When that type of crime occurs, a message is sent to the entire community ... that the community is not welcome, that the community is not safe,” Susskind said.

While crimes against the disabled rose from one in 2002 to three last year, the overall number of crimes motivated by hatred of a victim’s race, sexual orientation or religion declined.

The drop in hate crimes in the county came as the FBI reported a slight increase nationwide.

Commission officials said they believe many victims choose not to report crimes for fear of retaliation or suspicion of law enforcement. Nevertheless, they were heartened by the falling numbers.

“We try not to read too much into a year’s fluctuation ... but we think it’s a good sign,” Wong said.

One of the sharpest decreases came in crimes linked to Sept. 11, 2001, and the Middle East conflict. In 2001, the commission reported 188 such crimes, compared with nine last year.

Edina Lekovic, 27, was driving in Malibu when another motorist noticed her head scarf, worn by Muslims, and began shouting at her, calling her a terrorist. The driver harassed her for about 20 minutes as they drove along Pacific Coast Highway until Lekovic pulled onto a freeway, Lekovic said.

“My heart began to pound,” she said at a news conference where the new statistics were announced. “I learned, myself, that it doesn’t require assaults to create fear and anxiety.”