Hate Crimes On The Rise In Orange County: 2018 Report

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Hate crimes in Orange County were on the rise in 2018 continuing a five-year trend, the OC Human Relations Commission said in their annual report. Beyond the statistics released in that report, the 67 hate crimes reported in 2018 included vandalized churches and temples, verbal and physical attacks on Orange County residents.

The most significant alleged hate crime of 2018 was the stabbing death of Blaze Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college student, whose body was found in a shallow grave in a Lake Forest park in early January. Samuel Lincoln Woodward, a former classmate of Bernstein's, is charged with committing his murder, with an added hate crime allegation.

"Orange County should be known as more than the place where our son died," Gideon and Jeanne Bernstein, Blaze's parents, said in the report. "(Orange County) should also be a place that acted against Hate in all its forms."

The Bernstein's have worked steadfastly since Blaze's body was found to encourage the community to "Blaze it Forward" by doing good in memory of their son.

Over the last five years, hate crimes have steadily been on the rise with the most significant jump occurring between 2017 to 2018, according to the report.

The commission noted a difference between the state Department of Justice's 2018 hate crime report, which showed a 2.5-percent decrease. Data used in the OC's hate crime reports included those from several educational institutions in the county, which were not reflected in the Attorney General's report.

The most common way racism was expressed was through vandalism at 21 percent, followed by simple assaults at 13 percent, criminal threats, and aggravated assaults at 3 percent.

Another notable incident involved anti-Semitic vandalism on an Irvine synagogue in November.
The most frequent hate crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity or national origin at 42 percent, followed by 34 percent based on religious faith, and 16 percent for sexual orientation.

In 2018, Jews were the most targeted for hate crimes at 13 percent.

The report attributes it to being "part of a national trend that also shows an increase of hate crimes targeting people of the Jewish faith."

The next most targeted groups were Latinos and those of Middle Eastern ancestry, both at 6 percent.

• Hate crimes against blacks dropped from four in 2017 to three in 2018.
• Hate crimes against LGBT victims increased from two in 2017 to 11 in 2018.
• Hate crimes against Latinos went up from three in 2017 to four in 2018.
• Hate crimes against Asians remained the same from three in 2017 to three in 2018.

The report also shows an "alarming rise" in hate incidents, which are racially motivated but don't fit the legal definition for a crime.

In 2018, there were 165 hate incidents recorded in Orange County, in an "alarming 37 percent increase from 2017," the report said.

"In the last four years, hate incidents have spiked with the largest jump occurring from 2017 to 2018," according to the report.

Some of the hate incidents included a Muslim woman wearing a hijab insulted with a middle-finger gesture and called a "baby killer and trash."

A biracial couple who questioned a white man why he failed to fix a patio door they paid him to repair was refused a return on their deposit and told, "You and your (n word) can (expletive) off, race traitor."

A Christian church's door was vandalized with "God hates (expletive for homosexuals)." The vandal also left fecal matter at the scene.

Gideon and Jeanne Bernstein included an essay in the report describing the memorial fund in their son's name and continue their efforts to educate the community about the "dangers of allowing bigotry and antisemitism to ripen into normative behavior."

When the Newport Harbor High School officials when they were rocked with a scandal involving some of their students engaging in anti-Semitic behavior depicted in social media posts, the Bernstein's stepped in and helped. The first "#BlazeitForward Club" — a tribute to their son —was established at the high school.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who took office this year, reported last year the office received 32 hate crime cases, resulting in charges for 25 of them.

Four of the cases were rejected, and three are pending.

In all but one of 15 filed cases that included hate crime, the office secured convictions or defendants continue to face charges.

The convicts received sentences last year, ranging from probation to five years in prison.
Last year, the 32 cases referred to the District Attorney was an increase from 17 in 2017 and 12 in 2016, according to Spitzer's report.

"The sad reality is that, in recent years, hate crimes and incidents have increased in our county, targeting individuals or groups because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, or other aspect of their being," said Rabbi Richard Steinberg, chairman of the OC Human Relations Commission, in the annual report.

"Temple walls continue to be defaced with racial slurs. People are being assaulted because they speak a different language or by the way they look," Steinberg wrote. "The worst possible outcome became a reality this past year when a young man was murdered because of who he was. We cannot allow fear, Hate, and bigotry to divide us. We must listen to each other, communicate respectfully, build bridges of understanding, and support each other through these traumatic events."

Read Also:
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City News Service, with Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig.

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