Thread: Hate crimes up, study says

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... -headlines

L.A. County incidents increased 26% last year, fueled largely by aggression between blacks and Latinos, often at schools.
By Susannah Rosenblatt, Times Staff Writer
December 15, 2006

Reported incidents of hate crimes in Los Angeles County increased for the first time in four years, while such incidents in schools have more than doubled from last year, according to a report released Thursday.

The 26% spike in reported countywide hate crimes last year was fueled primarily by a nearly 50% jump in racially motivated offenses, especially toward immigrants and between African Americans and Latinos, according to an annual analysis by the county Commission on Human Relations.

The report tracked hate crimes reported to law enforcement or other agencies, but did not address which ones led to criminal charges or arrests.

Conflicts between blacks and Latinos erupted on the streets, in jails and at schools, with school-based hate crimes soaring by 111%. Many of these incidents on or near campus occurred in South Los Angeles, the report said.

The figure does not include 11 of 14 large student scuffles last year. The commission did not receive reports on those incidents because it was difficult to determine if they were racially motivated.

"All it takes is one incident," Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said.

The rise in hate crimes reported across the county bucks state and national downward trends, the commission found. The city of Los Angeles also measured a roughly 10% dip in hate crimes, said Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Yet the number of reported hate crimes recorded last year — 633 — is still the second-lowest number since 1990. The 2004 tally was 502 incidents.

Violent acts of prejudice are "a virus in the petri dish of our society," Paysinger said. "It remains a significant challenge. The first step in inoculating us from this disease is awareness."

Nearly two-thirds of incidents last year were racially motivated, with 15% caused by religious intolerance and 15% related to sexual orientation. Attacks related to sexual orientation dropped by about a quarter from last year.

Blacks were the most common victims of hate crimes in 2005, followed by Latinos; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals; and Jews. Violence and vandalism were the most widespread offenses.

"The first step to solving this problem is identifying it," said Amanda Susskind, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. "This is not a problem that's going away soon."

The commission's report highlighted simmering tensions between blacks and Latinos: the majority of suspects in anti-black crimes were Latino and vice versa, according to the organization's data. Hostilities sparked by heated debate regarding immigration could account in part for the increase in anti-Latino incidents, said Robin S. Toma, executive director of the commission.

The commission analyzed white supremacist crime for the first time and found 17% of hate crimes were perpetrated by such groups locally, compared with just 5% nationwide.

Commission members stressed that hate crimes still are widely underreported, and true statistics could be far greater than the numbers presented Thursday, especially in schools, jails and juvenile detention halls. Language barriers, distrust of law enforcement and fear of retaliation discourage people from reporting hate crimes, Toma said.

Toma also attributed gang-related hate crimes — 11% of the racially motivated attacks from last year — to a lack of opportunities for youth, struggling schools and scarce jobs. He said the bulk of these crimes occur in low socioeconomic groups.

"The lack of resources creates an environment of violence," said the Rev. Eric P. Lee, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.

The county commission defines hate crimes as offenses involving bias, hatred or prejudice based on a victim's "real or perceived" race, religion, national origin, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

Two-thirds of the data came from the Los Angeles Police Department and the county Sheriff's Department, with the rest provided by local police forces, school districts, community organizations and victims.


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susannah.rosenblatt @latimes.com

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Attacks increase

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Reported incidents of hate crimes in Los Angeles County increased for the first time in four years, due in large part to a 46% spike in racially motivated attacks.

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Hate crimes by motivation, 2005

Change
% of from
total 2004
Race/ethnicity/national origin 64% + 46%
Religion 15% + 25%
Sexual orientation 15% - 27%
Other/unknown 6% + 95%

Source: Los Angeles County Commission of Human Relations

Toma also attributed gang-related hate crimes — 11% of the racially motivated attacks from last year — to a lack of opportunities for youth, struggling schools and scarce jobs. He said the bulk of these crimes occur in low socioeconomic groups.

"The lack of resources creates an environment of violence," said the Rev. Eric P. Lee, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.

I have to disagree with this. I live in a very good school district and the past couple of years have been terrible. We now have Latin King graffiti at, and around our school, and there were so many threats on one of the school buses "to kill the white boys", that they had to get a separate bus for the trouble makers. We all live in the same neighborhood and have the same opportunities, it is up to the parents to watch their own children and address problems with consequences. I am not buying into the whole socioeconomic thing at all. If you love your kid, not matter where you lives, you are going to take care of business.

The Latino gangs are big problem with everyone. As for the problems between Hispanics and African Americans in Miami it has alot to do with the Hispanics and many illegals that are moving into their neighborhoods. It is their affordable housing and it is being slowly taken away by the Hispanics. In one high crime area in northwest Dade County the Hispanics are buying the homes cheap and are building large homes. Then you have the illegals with multiple families living in one house having loud parties, allowing their children to run around unattended, parking cars all over the place including on the neighbors properties and large amount of garbage due to the amount of them in one house. That is a complaint I heard from African Americans. They also let the African Americans know that they have guns and will use them.
As I mentioned before when there was a billboard up in that area and I95 that was about stopping illegal immigration. Someone actually sprayed painted save our hoods on it.

It's really no surprise blacks and hispanics are going at it. Unfortunately in our society black people are frequently among those who are unemployed the most. So many illegals are competing with blacks for entry level low skill jobs. Which has to make you wonder? Why is the democratic party, which is supposed to be the champion of the underclass, supporting the influx of millions of illegals when they know the illegals are competing directly with their own poor constituents for employment?

This is one thing that really burned me about G. W. Bush. Clinton pushed for and signed off on a lot of block grants and gang deterient funding. BTW, the drug enforcement money has dried up too. Bush road into the white house claiming he was tough on juvinile crime. However, it was actually Clinton's admin. that was. TX juv. crime was up and people still elected him. Amyway, Bush didn't push for or renew the block grants so the juvinile crime is back on the rise. You can directly thank Bush for that.

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

This is one thing that really burned me about G. W. Bush. Clinton pushed for and signed off on a lot of block grants and gang deterient funding. BTW, the drug enforcement money has dried up too. Bush road into the white house claiming he was tough on juvinile crime. However, it was actually Clinton's admin. that was. TX juv. crime was up and people still elected him. Amyway, Bush didn't push for or renew the block grants so the juvinile crime is back on the rise. You can directly thank Bush for that.Dixie

When it comes to kids, you can't blame the government. I don't care how much money is pumped into these programs, if you don't teach your child properly, they are going to get in trouble. The government should not be raising our children, the parents should. Where are the parents?

Dixie, you can thank the illegals for the increase in juvenile crime and blame the government for not enforcing the immigration laws. The deadliest gangs in the United States such as MS 13 came here thanks to their illegal parents who brought them along. According to gang researchers and the county gang unit intelligence, MS 13 arrived in the city of Homestead and South Dade County when the parents came from Central America to work on the farms. Guest worker programs, I don't think so. If it is consideration then they should consider leave the kids at home.

From what I understand, Dallas has quite a gang problem and one story I saw said the gangs were targeting Jr. High kids for membership.

The MS-13 was one of the gangs mentioned.

I have a lot of fear for the city of Dallas. I know it is still a hub of banking, commerce, etc. - but it is also filling up with illegals and problems.

Yes gangs are recruiting kids from middle schools as they are more easily influenced as they are at the age where they need to feel accepted by peers. This has been a known fact by law enforcement for years and they have actively worked at preventing it.
At my daughter's former high school there was an attempt to have 6 new gangs and they tried actively recruiting teens there. It never happened as there was a high number of Jewish teens who had no interest in it and the many of the art magnet program members were gay so we were lucky. Unfortunately others schools aren't .