Hate Crimes California

The state Supreme Court upheld California's hate-crime laws Monday and ruled that prosecutors do not have to prove bigotry was the sole cause of an attack or threat. The laws make it a crime to injure or threaten someone because of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability and add as much as three years to prison sentences for felonies motivated by bigotry.

State officials Thursday announced a new hotline to aid targets of harassment and hate crimes amid signs of a new surge in such incidents affecting Arab Americans and Muslims since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Aileen Adams, secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency, and Dennis Hayashi, director of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said they have received reports that hate incidents, after tapering off for a few weeks, have increased again in California.

More than a quarter of all hate crimes in the state last year occurred in Los Angeles, nearly three times as many as in the next-highest city, according to a report released Thursday by the state attorney general's office. The state's 1,962 hate crimes, occurring at a rate of more than five a day last year, represent an increase of 12% over the previous year. The total is the second highest since California began keeping track in 1994, the report stated.

Two followers of white supremacist Alex James Curtis have been sentenced to federal prison for harassing Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego), spraying swastikas on a synagogue and other hate crimes. Michael Brian DaSilva, 22, of Lakeside was sentenced to 21 months, and Robert Nichol Morehouse, 54, of San Diego received 18 months. Both had pleaded guilty.

In its first report on hate crimes in California, the state Department of Justice documented 672 bias-related incidents during the last six months of 1994. Racial incidents made up the largest proportion of hate crimes, with blacks and whites the leading targets. The next largest category of complaints was tied to sexual orientation, followed by religion and then physical or mental disability. The figures, released Tuesday by Atty. Gen.

Declaring that hate crimes often are not reported by police and victims in California, members of a new state commission said Wednesday that they will focus on ways to ensure that crimes motivated by bigotry are no longer overlooked by officials and communities. "Consciousness needs to be raised throughout the state," said Joseph McNamara, a former San Jose police chief who co-chairs the attorney general's Civil Rights Commission on Hate Crimes.

Federal authorities on Wednesday were investigating the firebombing of the NAACP office here, and national civil rights officials said the attack was part of an emerging pattern of hate crimes in California and the West. About 2 a.m. Tuesday, an arsonist broke a window and ignited flammable liquid throughout the X Street offices of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, located about a mile south of the Capitol, police said.

Anti-immigrant sentiment has increased acts of racially motivated violence against Asian Americans, with the number of reported incidents nationwide swelling by 35% last year, according to a study released Monday by a Washington-based advocacy group. Asian Americans have had swastikas painted on their houses, been attacked with baseball bats and been beaten to taunts of "Go back to your country!" and "Go away, gooks," according to the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Los Angeles County rose slightly last year, an increase attributed to more accurate reporting and the publicity triggered by the Granada Hills preschool shooting, according to a report Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League. The national civil rights group in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents showed that increases in Los Angeles County and California run counter to a national decline in the number of bigoted acts reported against Jews.

To the relief of Japanese-Americans, Pearl Harbor Day passed without incident despite fears that the intense focus on the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack could trigger hate crimes or other animosities toward Asians in America. "Our office was quiet yesterday, which was really comforting," Jimmy Tokeshi, head of the Japanese American Citizens League in Los Angeles, said Sunday.

Reported hate crimes declined slightly in the state last year, according to a California Department of Justice report unveiled Friday. The figures showed that overall hate crimes leveled off at 1,957 incidents--five fewer than in 1999. Sixty-three percent of those crimes were motivated by race or ethnicity, 21% by sexual orientation and 15% by religion. African Americans were the most frequent victims (31%).

More than a quarter of all hate crimes in the state last year occurred in Los Angeles, nearly three times as many as in the next-highest city, according to a report released Thursday by the state attorney general's office. The state's 1,962 hate crimes, occurring at a rate of more than five a day last year, represent an increase of 12% over the previous year. The total is the second highest since California began keeping track in 1994, the report stated.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Los Angeles County rose slightly last year, an increase attributed to more accurate reporting and the publicity triggered by the Granada Hills preschool shooting, according to a report Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League. The national civil rights group in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents showed that increases in Los Angeles County and California run counter to a national decline in the number of bigoted acts reported against Jews.

Declaring that hate crimes often are not reported by police and victims in California, members of a new state commission said Wednesday that they will focus on ways to ensure that crimes motivated by bigotry are no longer overlooked by officials and communities. "Consciousness needs to be raised throughout the state," said Joseph McNamara, a former San Jose police chief who co-chairs the attorney general's Civil Rights Commission on Hate Crimes.

Gov. Gray Davis, declaring that hate groups pose a "very serious threat to public safety," said Monday that he will propose legislation this week to strengthen state laws for fighting paramilitary organizations and hate groups in California.

With a flurry of hate-fueled attacks hitting California, from arson fires at three Sacramento area synagogues to the rampage last week at a Jewish community center in Granada Hills, religious and law enforcement leaders met Thursday to discuss ways to beef up security at our most vulnerable institutions. They talked of precautions against pipe bombs, surveillance cameras in synagogues and churches, the foibles of white supremacists and the best ways to angle security lights.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to decide whether University of California students can be forced to pay activity fees that are used for political causes and lobbying that they may not support. The justices set aside a state Court of Appeal ruling last January that upheld the use of mandatory fees for political activities, saying the funding served the university's educational purpose.

State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer on Monday released statewide statistics on 1998 hate crimes before announcing the creation of an advisory commission and a new strategy to combat the problem. Lockyer was flanked by local politicians, law enforcement and civil rights leaders as he spoke at a news conference at the Museum of Tolerance in West Los Angeles.