The mother of an African American girl slain in a racially motivated attack last year made an emotional plea for peace Thursday during a presentation about Los Angeles County hate crime, which has dropped slightly since 2005.
"To have your child, your baby of 14, taken away from you due to the color of her skin, there's no understanding to it, you can't make sense of it -- because there's no sense to it," said Charlene Lovett, mother of 14-year-old Cheryl Green, who police say was killed by Latino gang members in Harbor Gateway last December.
The annual report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations found that though hate crimes in 2006 dipped 6% from the previous year, crimes against blacks and crimes committed by gang members and mobs of young people were on the rise. Once again, blacks, gays, Mexicans and other Latinos, and Jews were the most common victims.
Although hate crimes overall were less violent, there were two hate-motivated killings and 13 attempted murders last year, compared with no murders and six such attempts in 2005.
The analysis found 594 hate crimes occurred countywide last year, the second-fewest since 1990. The district attorney filed charges in 129 of the incidents. The commission receives the majority of its data from 47 law enforcement agencies, with the remainder reported by school districts, community groups and victims.
State law defines hate crimes as criminal acts in which bias, hatred or prejudice toward the victim's real or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation or other characteristic is a major factor.
Last year was marked by several high-profile incidents, including the Halloween night beating of three white women by a group of black youths in Long Beach, and myriad race riots in county jails and juvenile halls and on high school campuses. In another incident described in the report, 14 members of a white supremacist gang en route to a rally stabbed an African American male in front of a Claremont liquor store.
Of racially motivated hate crimes, 59% were against blacks, 22% against Latinos, 7% against Asians, 4% against whites and 4% against Armenians. Latino-targeted hate crimes dropped by a quarter after nearly doubling in 2005, yet anti-immigrant slurs increased, the report said.
Tension between African Americans and Latinos continues to spark violence; the majority of hate crimes against both groups had suspects of the other race.
