Hate crimes increase in Newport-Mesa

Deepa Bharath

Local communities were no exception to the statewide increase in

hate that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to 2001

hate crime statistics the state Attorney General’s office released

Wednesday.

Newport Beach reported six hate crime-related offenses that

occurred in the city, six offenses, seven victims and seven known

suspects, the report said. Costa Mesa reported three events, three

offenses, three victims and no known suspects while UC Irvine

reported one event, one offense, one victim and one known suspect.

In the state of California, hate crimes increased 15.5%, the

report said. There were 304 more hate crimes in 2001 compared to

2000, 260 more victims and 372 more suspects.

Newport Beach Sgt. Steve Shulman said the six incidents reported

in the city seem to be random acts rather than related to Sept. 11.

“We don’t see any particular trend tying the cases to 9/11,” he

said.

The department tracked nine cases in 2001 that could be racially

motivated, Shulman said. Only two were targeted at people of a Middle

Eastern descent, he said.

“One was a note left for a person and the other was an incident of

road rage where something racial was yelled out,” Shulman said.

“Also, there were no major injuries stemming from any of the

incidents. We did have some injuries because we had a couple of

physical fights.”

He said out of a total of about 6,900 crimes in the city, six were

hate crimes.

“Hate crimes in our city have gone up from one [in 2000] to six

[in 2001],” Shulman said. “It’s a larger number, but it is still less

than one-tenth of 1% of the total crimes in our city.”

That, however, in no way undermines the gravity of the crimes, he

said.

“It would be nice not to have any [hate crimes],” Shulman said.

“But in a city that is diverse in many ways, that’s a challenge.”

Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave Snowden said the city has taken

several proactive steps to counter hate crime.

“One hate crime is one too many,” he said. “We make it mandatory

for our officers to go through the Tools for Tolerance Program at the

Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles so officers know what they’re

dealing with. We take hate crimes very, very seriously.”

Tolerance is also an issue that children learn about through the

Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in both cities.

Hate crimes in Orange County saw a 50% increase last year, said

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human

Relations Commission.

“The six weeks after Sept. 11 were the worst when several groups

of people perceived to be of Middle Eastern or Arab descent were

targeted,” he said. The previous worst record for hate crimes in the

county was during the Gulf War when 14 incidents were reported. That

record was shattered after Sept. 11, Kennedy said.

Newport-Mesa’s numbers don’t surprise him at all, he said.

“No city or community is immune to hate crime,” Kennedy said. “It

can happen anywhere.”

Solutions to dealing with such crimes include prosecution of

suspects, establishing trust between law enforcement and community

groups and, in the long term, teaching young people to be tolerant,

he said.

“We need to set a community standard that discourages hate crimes

from happening,” Kennedy said. “They could be triggered off by

incidents such as 9/11 or be caused by a change in demographics.

“But hate crimes largely happen because of ignorance and that’s

why we need to help build relationships between diverse young people

at an early age.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.