An Incomplete Picture: Tackling Hate Crimes in Orange County

Orange County – 1 of the astir divers places successful the state – continues to conflict with addressing hatred crimes much than 50 years aft the assassination of civilian rights person Martin Luther King, Jr. successful Memphis. 

And successful the midst of that struggle, region leaders are dialing backmost a committee liable for researching ways to combat hatred and beforehand tolerance arsenic good arsenic producing the county’s yearly hatred transgression report.

Less than a week earlier Martin Luther King Day, OC Board of Supervisors narrowly voted to shrink the Human Relations Commission, alteration the fig of meetings they person yearly and gag commissioners from issuing statements and property releases.

[Read: Orange County Gags Commission Created to Combat Hate Crimes]

Supervisors argued that they needed to rotation backmost the committee truthful that it tin absorption connected creating a amended strategy for information postulation connected hatred crimes and recalibrate its efforts.  

“This is an accidental to refocus this commission, and I deliberation what we are doing present is trying to bounds our information of the contented to enactment connected improving the systems and enactment connected improving the processes,” said Supervisor Don Wagner astatine past week’s meeting.

The rollback came the aforesaid period region leaders softly released the 2023 OC yearly hatred transgression study that saw the fig of reported hatred crimes driblet for the archetypal clip successful 7 years.

To presumption the 2023 Annual Hate Crime Report, click here.

It’s besides the archetypal study the region has produced connected the contented since they fired Groundswell – a nonprofit that utilized to hole the yearly appraisal – and the archetypal 1 that doesn’t relationship for the fig of reported hatred incidents.  

Click here for the State Attorney General’s definitions of a hatred transgression vs a hatred incident.

Concerns About OC’s New Approach to Tracking Hate

Protesters gathered extracurricular the Orange Unified School District committee of acquisition gathering connected Sept. 7, 2023. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC.

Organizations similar the Council connected American Islamic Relations Greater Los Angeles (CAIR) – a nonprofit based successful Anaheim that tracks hatred crimes against the Muslim assemblage – are raising concerns astir the changes successful producing the latest report.

Amr Shabaik, ineligible manager of the group, successful an emailed connection past week sent to the Voice of OC raised concerns astir leaving retired hatred incidents, not collaborating with community-based nonprofits connected the study and relying solely connected instrumentality enforcement data.

“The departure from humanities collaboration betwixt Orange County and community-based organizations means an incomplete representation of however hatred is impacting our county,” helium said, adding that groups similar his are “the archetypal responders to hate.”

“While hatred incidents whitethorn not emergence to the level of a crime, they whitethorn interruption civilian rights laws and undoubtedly make important harm and feelings of fearfulness and marginalization wrong impacted communities.”

Shabaik besides is acrophobic astir the supervisors’ determination to shrink and gag the quality relations commission. 

“While the Commission is not without its flaws,” helium said. “The Commission includes galore established and well-meaning individuals and it serves an important relation successful tracking, responding to, and eliminating hatred and intolerance successful Orange County.”

Molly Nichelson, a spokeswoman for the county, did not respond to emailed questions astir the concerns Wednesday.

Natalie Moser, a quality relations commissioner and erstwhile Huntington Beach City Councilwoman, successful a telephone interrogation Wednesday echoed concerns made by OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento astatine past week’s supervisor meeting.

“Limiting the fig of radical and possibly the practice to lone radical appointed by supervisors mightiness bespeak a narrowing of perspectives astatine a clip erstwhile broader practice is indispensable to the ngo of the commission,” she said.

Last week’s determination by the supervisors means Moser volition nary longer service connected the commission.

The commissioner besides said she understands the request for a standardized methodology erstwhile it comes to collecting hatred transgression and incidental data.

“The astir important happening is that we person a wide representation that’s trusted successful the community, truthful that we recognize from twelvemonth to twelvemonth what the level of hatred is that creates fearfulness wrong our community, due to the fact that our extremity is to make a harmless community,” Moser said. 

She said she hopes the adjacent region study volition besides see hatred incidents arsenic good and that the region volition collaborate with assemblage based organizations not conscionable instrumentality enforcement connected creating the report.

“I anticipation that excluding hatred incidents this twelvemonth is not repeated adjacent year,” she said. “To not admit that – I ideate for radical that person experienced these things, discourages them from reporting.”

Moser besides said Groundswell brought a batch of expertise to the contented done their outreach and engagement efforts with the community. 

Alison Edwards, CEO of Groundswell, did not respond to a petition for remark Wednesday.

Hate Crimes successful 2023

Flowers and flameless candles astatine a vigil for Gaza astatine UC Irvine connected Oct. 30, 2023. Flowers were fixed retired to the attendees of the vigil. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC.

The county’s 2023 study recovered determination were 95 reported hatred crimes successful Orange County – a driblet from 112 reported hatred crimes successful 2022. It’s the archetypal clip that fig has gone down since 2016.

However, Groundswell reported 162 hatred crimes successful 2022 – thing region officials look to person revised successful their latest accounting.

Similar to past year, the bulk of reported hatred crimes targeted Black, Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities successful Orange County, according to the 2023 report.

The findings besides travel aft Arab American, Muslim and Jewish assemblage leaders warned of an uptick successful hatred crimes successful OC since warfare broke retired successful Israel and Palestine connected Oct. 7, 2023 aft a astonishment Hamas onslaught connected Israel that triggered retaliatory attacks successful Gaza and beyond. 

Last week, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal.

The county’s study recovered determination were 3 anti-Arab, 3 anti-Muslim and 14 anti-Jewish hatred crimes successful 2023 successful OC. 

Shabaik said the region study doesn’t seizure the afloat representation of hatred experienced by his community, pointing to a study from CAIR that recovered the nonprofit received implicit 8,000 complaints of bias nationwide – 600 of which were reported to his chapter.

“We cognize that successful 2023, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Arab hatred were astatine an all-time high. The exclusion of community-based organizations and the sole reliance connected incomplete numbers of hatred crimes reported to instrumentality enforcement does not seizure this reality,” Shabaik said.

Matt Friedman, Regional Director of Anti-Defamation League Orange County & Long Beach, besides expressed interest astir incomplete information successful the caller report.

“We are precise beardown supporters of authorities entities collecting that information and reporting connected that information — hatred crimes and hatred incidents — but to alteration the mode it’s getting collected and wherever they’re getting information from, it makes an investigation of the information much challenging,” Friedman said.

According to an ADL report, determination were 88 antisemitic incidents of hatred successful 2023 successful the Orange County & Long Beach area, an summation from 55 successful 2022.

“It would beryllium fantastic if determination was a morganatic alteration successful Orange County, that would beryllium great, but astatine the aforesaid time, I’m a small cautious to work excessively overmuch into those numbers,” Friedman said.

About 18% of the crimes successful the region study happened successful Santa Ana and 15% happened successful Irvine.

The study clarifies that the 95 full hatred transgression events whitethorn beryllium underrepresented since 4 cities — Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Orange and Westminster — partially reported information for 2023.

According to the assessment, the fig of reported hatred crimes successful Orange County made up astir 5% of the fig of reported hatred crimes crossed the state.

Statewide, determination were 1,970 reported hatred transgression events successful 2023, down from the 2,120 events reported successful 2022, according to the 2023 Attorney General report.

To presumption the statewide 2023 Hate Crime Report, click here.

A Void successful Combating Hate successful Orange County

Residents, assemblage members and metropolis unit gathered connected March 19, 2021 to code the caller uptick successful Asian hatred crimes. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC

It is unclear what the committee has been doing for the past six months since supervisors decided not to renew their declaration with Groundswell.

The commission itself has not met since June 2024 – with the past 5 meetings being canceled.

Moser said the committee wasn’t fixed a batch of accusation arsenic to wherefore the meetings were canceled.

At the aforesaid time, lone 1 region staffer has been assigned to the commission, Jessica Witt – the county’s manager of Government and Community Relations.

Witt said without the due staffing, assemblage outreach and acquisition programs aimed astatine gathering much tolerance aren’t taking place.

“Since that has been moved internally to the CEO’s office, we presently don’t person that information of it, due to the fact that close now, you’re looking astatine the staffing of the Human Relations Commission close earlier you,” she told supervisors astatine past week’s meeting.

“Party of one.”

Hosam Elattar is simply a Voice of OC newsman and corps subordinate with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him astatine helattar@voiceofoc.org oregon connected Twitter @ElattarHosam.

Angelina Hicks is simply a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her astatine ahicks@voiceofoc.org oregon connected Twitter @angelinahicks13.

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