{"id":67738,"date":"2024-09-26T13:58:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T20:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=67738"},"modified":"2024-09-26T13:58:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T20:58:30","slug":"fighting-prosecution-barriers-bay-area-politicians-aim-grassroots-against-hate-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=67738","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Prosecution Barriers, Bay Area Politicians Aim Grassroots Against Hate Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With California hate crimes nearly doubled since 2019, local leaders have sparked nationwide efforts to fight hate at the grassroots level amid low rates of prosecution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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(L-R) Anthony Rodriguez, Jesse Arregu\u00edn and Lori Frugoli discuss nationwide efforts to fight hate at the grassroots level, at a Monday, September 23 summit at San Francisco\u2019s Commonwealth Club commemorating United Against Hate Week. (Credit: Selen Ozturk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With California hate crimes nearly doubled since 2019, local leaders have sparked nationwide efforts to fight hate at the grassroots level amid low prosecution rates.<\/p>\n

These efforts, part of an annual United Against Hate Week, began in mid-2017, after neo-Nazis sponsored a protest in Berkeley\u2019s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park that involved bloody altercations between fascist and antifascist groups.<\/p>\n

For this year\u2019s proceedings in the week of September 21, events in over 200 communities nationwide include a Unity Walk in Las Vegas sponsored by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office and Nevada\u2019s Attorney General; a PBS-led screening and discussion of Repairing the World, a film about Pittsburgh\u2019s response to the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018; a variety show against hate in Providence, Rhode Island; and resolutions to combat hate in cities throughout the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

However, these initiatives often remain grassroots owing to the challenge of prosecuting hate incidents as crimes, if they are reported at all, said Anthony Rodriguez, senior advisor for Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arregu\u00edn at a Monday, September 23 summit at San Francisco\u2019s Commonwealth Club commemorating United Against Hate Week.<\/p>\n

He suggested that many groups spreading hate nationwide first tested their tactics in the Bay Area, with deadly consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen mass killings of 11 people in Pittsburgh, 10 in Buffalo, nine in Charleston, 23 Latinos in El Paso, seven at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, 49 people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, and then in Colorado Springs,\u201d added Rodriguez, a United Against Hate organizer, at a panel opening the summit. \u201cThese horrific mass shootings that make the news are part of hate that happens daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018They used Berkeley as a training ground\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cI was elected mayor of Berkeley the same night that Donald Trump was elected president. It was a bittersweet evening, because I immediately saw the impact in my community, and it\u2019s only gotten worse since then,\u201d said Arregu\u00edn.<\/p>\n

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(L-R) Jesse Arregu\u00edn and Lori Frugoli discuss the reasons behind low prosecution rates for hate crimes in their communities. (Credit: Selen Ozturk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cLittle did I expect that one of the first challenges that I would encounter as Mayor was the presence of the Proud Boys using our city as a platform for violent provocation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The four protests, held through April, began on February 1 when British political commentator and Trump supporter Milo Yiannopolous was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n

In response, over 100 faculty signed a petition urging the university to cancel the event and over 1,500 protestors gathered on campus. Participants started fires, set off fireworks, threw rocks at police and attacked property and each other, with an estimated $100,000 in damages.<\/p>\n

The increasingly violent protests culminated with a pro-Trump rally on April 15, when 500 to 1,000 people for and against the rally broke into physical assaults including smoke bombs, pepper sprays, rock-throwing and stabbing.<\/p>\n

11 people were injured, with six hospitalized. 20 people were arrested, including far-right activists who held antisemitic signs and made Nazi salutes for groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Rise Above Movement and Identity Evropa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared and very angry that this was happening in my city,\u201d said Arregu\u00edn. \u201cWe later learned that these far-right groups who would later be protesting in Charlottesville, Seattle, Portland and other cities throughout the U.S. were literally using Berkeley as a training ground for their tactics \u2026 our efforts to fight it have grown over seven years into a nationwide campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge of prosecuting hate<\/h2>\n

According to FBI data, hate crimes in California nearly doubled from 1,015 in 2019 to 1,970 in 2023.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, federal estimates suggest that as little as\u00a0one in 31<\/a>, or roughly 3%, of hate crimes are reported at all.<\/p>\n

Explaining why it\u2019s so difficult to prosecute hate crimes, Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli said \u201cThe issue is we have to prove someone\u2019s mental state, that they\u2019re committing a crime against someone because of their real or perceived race, color, religion or sexual orientation. If someone were to punch someone, for instance, it would be a simple battery, as opposed to someone battering someone while calling them a racist name. And people are learning how to walk that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Marin town of Fairfax, Frugoli\u2019s inability to legally file criminal charges against a man who walked that line resulted in a nationwide uproar and the passage of new hate crime legislation.<\/p>\n

In November 2020<\/a>, a young man was walking through downtown, posting stickers featuring a swastika and the words \u201cWe are everywhere.\u201d Another young man who identified as half-Jewish followed and videotaped the perpetrator while removing the stickers and questioning him about the harmfulness of his actions and the existence of the Holocaust, which the perpetrator denied.<\/p>\n

In the video, posted to Instagram, \u201cThe man kept saying \u2018I believe in the ideology,’\u201d said Frugoli. \u201cThe community was in an uproar overnight, and a petition with 1,000 people nationwide asked me to prosecute the charges. We have a very small county of 215,000 people, and I had only been in an office since 2019, so we really weren\u2019t equipped to handle this properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the stickers didn\u2019t cause permanent damage, the incident was not vandalism, and because state law only prevented swastikas from being posted on private property, no criminal charges were filed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe addressed not finding the charges by saying there was insufficient evidence, a term that we use probably 20 times a week,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe had a forum over two hours long with the FBI and local leaders, and 200 to 300 people, and people were hurt. One participant, Seth Brysk from the ADL, said \u2018Do you know how painful that is, when you\u2019re a person of Jewish faith with carrying generations of pain, to hear prosecutors talk like it\u2019s just business?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank him to this day,\u201d Frugoli added. \u201cI do now change the way that I talk about these things, putting more emphasis into why we can\u2019t file a case, or why we chose certain charges versus others.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the forum, a group called Name, Oppose and Abolish Hate (NOAH<\/a>) formed to meet with local legislators, advocate for and pass\u00a0AB 2282<\/a>, a 2022 bill making it a felony to use recognized religious hate symbols like swastikas, nooses and burning crosses with the intent to terrorize someone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people say something vague like \u2018I believe in the ideology,\u2019 it\u2019s often an intentional way not to be held accountable \u2026 We\u2019re trying to find the line where we don\u2019t violate free speech, yet hold people accountable for behavior that\u2019s clearly intended to frighten and intimidate,\u201d said Frugoli.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can walk into my office and see what we stand for, but you have to go beyond that, get out to listen to peoples\u2019 pains and come up with a positive answer,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the\u00a0California State Library<\/a>\u00a0in partnership with the\u00a0California Department of Social Services<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs<\/a>\u00a0as part of the\u00a0Stop the Hate<\/a>\u00a0program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to\u00a0CA vs Hate<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Sep 26, 2024 With...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67739,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67738\/revisions\/67739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}