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May 28, 1999/13 Sivan 5759, Vol. 51, No.35
Hate crime dips in Arizona
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
After five years of steady increases, hate crimes in Arizona dropped in 1998, according to figures released by the Department of Public Safety. Anti-Jewish hate crimes, however, increased slightly.
Of the 279 hate crimes reported statewide in 1998, 30 of those were anti-Jewish, the DPS reported. In 1997, 332 hate crimes were reported, 26 of which were anti-Jewish.
Among religious groups, the Jewish community is the most frequent victim of hate crime, noted Phoenix police Detective Jerry Oliver of the Bias Crimes Investigations unit.
"I think in 1998 we (Phoenix Police Department) had somewhere around 15 anti-Jewish cases reported," Oliver said. "It's a pretty big number."
As in previous years, African Americans continued to be the most frequent victims of hate crimes. In 1998, 102 hate crimes were anti-black, but that number is 22 fewer than in '97. Hate crimes against Hispanics also decreased, dropping from 36 in 1997 to 26 last year.
The major offenses were vandalism (33 percent) and intimidation (28 percent). Simple assault and aggravated assault accounted for 19 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
Despite the decrease from 1997 to 1998, Marc Lieberman, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League's Civil Rights Committee, said he doesn't see a new trend.
"We had less overall crimes this year than last, but I don't see that as a trend either. Times are very good right now and crime is really going down nationwide," Lieberman said. "I fear that when the economy goes bad, which will happen at some point, that these figures will increase significantly.
"I think the Jewish people are always going to be a target," he added.
Lieberman believes that a very small percentage of hate crimes are actually ever reported, especially in Arizona's rural counties.
"Police in the rural areas are really hostile to keeping the statistics," he said.
Oliver suggested that as few as two out of eight such offenses are ever reported.
Often, Oliver said, hate crimes are only reported by a third party, somebody seeing the crime or knowing about it. He said that's very often the case in the gay and lesbian community.
"I don't know if it's maybe a little mistrust (of) law enforcement, or they were treated in a negative way in the past, but we've had those problems in that community," he said. He said lack of reporting also is a problem in the Hispanic community.
Proving a crime is motivated by prejudice "is even more difficult (than convincing victims to report) because you have to get the suspect to actually talk about what happened," Oliver said. "And a lot of times they won't say anything; they'll only say they want an attorney. ... And once they get lawyered up, no way in the world is an attorney going to say, 'Tell them you did this to this person because you hate them.' A good criminal defense attorney is going to know that there's an increased-punishment statute."
Oliver said investigators generally rely on witnesses, statements made while committing the crime, tattoos, symbols, "anything that we can to bring in (the offender's) beliefs, or motivation."
"Either you're going to do thorough police work, or you don't," said ADL Regional Director Joel Breshin. "And that's the main factor in getting these cases solved and clearing them. So, it doesn't have anything to do really with the difficulty. You just have to follow the leads, talk to neighbors, the usual stuff that a trained investigator does."
Breshin also notes, however, that the police need the right tools. That means tough statutes, such as Arizona's sentencing enhancement and institutional vandalism laws, enough funding and manpower to handle the caseloads, and the support of community members who will go to the city council or city manager and demand that anti-hate crime efforts remain a high priority.
As an example of the sort of commitment he expects, Breshin singled out Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, who has made hate crimes a high priority since taking office in 1989.
County prosecutor Jim Blake, who has been part of the effort since 1989, pointed specifically to the County Attorney's Office's efforts to write and see passed the state's hate-crimes enhanced sentencing law; to rewrite and see passed the aggravated criminal damage statute that makes a felony any criminal damage against a church, synagogue, religious institution, cemetery, or house of worship; the breaking up of violent gangs and the imprisonment of gang leaders; and prosecutors' success (along with the ADL and Gov. Jane Hull's office) in keeping imprisoned violent, hate-motivated criminals such as Michael Bloom, who was convicted in 1989 of plotting to blow up 30 buildings throughout the county, including black churches and seven Jewish day care centers. (Bloom will be up for parole again in July, and the County Attorney's Office has sent the Clemency Board a letter opposing his release.)
Blake said aggressive efforts by the County Attorney's Office and the Phoenix Police Department, each of which have their own hate-crimes units, are resulting in more such crimes being reported.
"So you're going to see more of it that way because they're out there documenting it and making sure that these cases don't fall through the cracks," he said.
In most cases, in fact, hate crime doesn't reach the felony threshold at which the County Attorney's Office would take the case. Crimes that are misdemeanors are handled by city prosecutors.
Because there is a perception among some minority groups that police are insensitive, Blake said, the County Attorney's Office and the Phoenix Police Department "do reach-out to the communities."
The police "have a liaison with different communities so that they know the police do take (hate crime) seriously," he said, "and (that) if there is any insensitivity, it will be dealt with - and dealt with severely."
The ADL's Breshin said it's important that communities work with police to ensure that crimes are reported and that victims and witnesses come forward and make sure cases are successfully investigated and prosecuted.
Lieberman believes one way to prevent hate crime is with diversity training, especially the ADL's "A World of Difference" program, which teaches non-violent methods for combating bigotry and bias. Lieberman said the ADL is pushing to get the program approved for use in school districts statewide.
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