San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis was one of the featured speakers at a two-hour panel discussion held at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center on May 24 that focused on hate crimes within the Jewish and GLBT communities.

The panel was presented by J*Pride, a program of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center that reaches out to the Jewish GLBT community of San Diego.

Midge Costanza, community relations officer for the District Attorney’s Office, moderated the panel, which also included Garden Grove Chief of Police Joseph Polisar and San Diego/Imperial County Anti-Defamation League (ADL) regional director Morris Casuto.

Panelists examined key aspects of hate crimes including national trends, local statistics and how legislation surrounding this issue specifically affects targeted groups such as the GLBT and Jewish communities.

According to the San Diego Regional Hate Crimes Procedural Manual for Law Enforcement Officers, a hate crime is any criminal act or attempted criminal act motivated in whole or in part by the victim’s actual or perceived race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability. A hate incident is a non-criminal act motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a person because of his or her race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

Dumanis said hate crimes are difficult to prosecute because there is a legal and ethical obligation not to proceed if her office cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“What we look for in hate crimes is whether or not we can prove the crime was committed because of any one of these categories,” Dumanis said. “That’s sometimes a very difficult thing to prove because even if somebody said something about each one of these categories, it doesn’t necessarily mean it was motivated by the bias against one of these. We look at all the facts that might suggest that this was why this was done.”

Hate crimes within the GLBT community often are not reported to the police for a variety of reasons, Dumanis said.

“Within the gay and lesbian community, certainly it is probably underreported because people are afraid, maybe in the closet, or may not want to come forward to report it,” she said. “We also have people that can help in that process, to work with somebody to bring them in, to help them along the way. It certainly helps to have a gay D.A. in office. I think that people feel more comfortable.”

Polisar said law enforcement uses California’s penal code statute to make hate crime arrests. He said a hate incident differs from a hate crime because it does not rise to the same level and is protected by the First Amendment.

The Orange County Human Relations Commission started to track hate crimes and hate incidents in 1990. Polisar said that the highest number of hate crimes and incidents in 1993 were against the gay and lesbian community, most likely due to the national debate at the time surrounding the military’s adoption of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“The data indicates that when a particular group is spotlighted or highlighted in a negative light there’s a cumulative increase in hate crimes or incidences against that group,” he said. “Although you can’t prove that, it’s just pretty much common sense.”

In 2004, hate crimes and incidents targeting gays and lesbians in Orange County increased 40 percent over the previous year, and some attributed the increase to the national same-sex marriage debate, Polisar said.

African-Americans had the highest number of reported hate crimes in Orange County in 2005, with 22 hate crimes reported. Crimes against the GLBT population ranked second with 16, and crimes against Jewish people ranked third at 12. Polisar said that last year, hate crimes against African-Americans were at their lowest level since 2001, while GLBT hate crimes rose slightly and anti-Jewish crimes were slightly down from 2004 data.

Polisar said there were 20 hate crimes prosecuted by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in 2005, with 18 brought to trial for a conviction rate of 86 percent.

San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne told the Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee on April 19 that there have been only three reported hate crimes against members of the GLBT community in San Diego during the first three months of this year, and only 11 in all of 2005. In 2004, there were 16 hate crimes reported by GLBT community members.

Dumanis said her office usually prosecutes two hate crimes per month – one based on sexual orientation and one based on race.

Casuto said hate crimes are basically “message crimes.”

“It is a message to a community through an individual that says to them: ‘You don’t belong here. We don’t want you here. You’re marginal. You’re unimportant,’” Casuto said. “Therefore, when you realize the implication of hate crimes you also recognize there is no such thing as a single hate crime victim because the victimization is designed to the community the victim represents.”

The police department’s response during the process and aftermath of reporting a hate crime has a deep impact on the victim, Casuto said.

“The victim doesn’t have to be bleeding in order for the law enforcement officer to understand that this is a serious act and there are things that can and must be done, respective of whether you are able to identify, search for, arrest and then prosecute hate criminals,” he said.

Secondary victimization often occurs after hate crimes are reported due to law enforcement not completely keeping in contact with the victim, Casuto said.

“If law enforcement does not understand their role beyond simply hunting for the perpetrator, then we are going to be victimizing the victims of hate crimes a second time,” he said. “… Victims need reassurance. They need to know that they are not invisible.”

Casuto said ADL ran a program for three years with the San Diego Police Department to assist the victims of hate crimes by keeping in closer contact with them after the crime was committed.

“We were quite amazed to find out that victims were quite resilient,” he said. “But they are increasingly resilient when law enforcement remains in contact with them and they know that there is an active investigation going on.”