Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Review of Hate Crimes Reporting Ordered

After receiving a report on racially motivated attacks in the Antelope Valley, the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered law enforcement agencies and the county’s Human Relations Commission to review the way hate crimes are investigated and prosecuted.

The Sheriff’s Department, district attorney’s office and Human Relations Commission have 90 days to come up with new procedures to clearly identify hate crimes and keep track of them.

The report, “Skinheads in Antelope Valley,” was put together by the commission in the wake of several racially motivated incidents in the Antelope Valley, including an April shooting in which four African Americans, including a 1-year-old child, were injured.

In addition to revising the way these kinds of crimes are handled by law enforcement agencies, the report made several suggestions on how cities and schools in the Antelope Valley could adopt anti-hate crime policies. But these suggestions are not binding, because the supervisors have no authority to determine policies for local governments and school districts.

Supervisor Gloria Molina criticized the commission’s report for failing to suggest more ways the county could ensure that local entities adopt anti-hate-crime policies.

“The report doesn’t go far enough, doesn’t go deep enough, and is not effective enough,” Molina said.

She warned that a long, hot summer of racial unrest could result if the county did not move quickly to stem hate crimes.

“I think in Los Angeles County, this is going to be more of a problem this summer than budget cuts all year,” Molina said. “Right now, this isn’t being taken seriously . . . is it going to take someone being lynched or something?”

Among the report’s other recommendations:

* Establish Community Human Relations Councils in Palmdale and Lancaster.

* Develop public community forums to promote discussions of the issue.

* Establish a hot line to receive calls about racial and other problems.

* Train and educate sheriff’s deputies to improve communication in minority areas.

* Develop school projects where students from different ethnicities can work together.

The report also called on local law enforcement to monitor, track and analyze hate crimes and identify trends--something the head of the local Sheriff’s Department admitted he had not been doing.

“When this first started, I thought we were looking at one crime, and maybe there’s an overreaction,” said Capt. Mike Aranda, chief of the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s station told the board. “But then I realized there was a perception that we weren’t doing enough to stop hate crimes.”