Gangs Commit Many of LA's Crimes of Hate

LOS ANGELES — While many officials worry about threats by white supremacists, more hate crimes in Los Angeles County are committed by street gangs.

There were 164 Hispanic perpetrators of hate crimes in the county in 1997, compared to 119 white offenders, according to a study by University of Hawaii professor Karen Umemoto.

Most of the Hispanic attackers were linked to street gangs.

“Gang violence is the point of origin for much of what we call hate crimes,” said Joe Hicks, executive director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission.

Los Angeles has a higher rate of hate crimes — crimes targeting victims’ race, religion, sexual orientation or other characteristics — than the national average.

In one small community, Hawaiian Gardens, more than three dozen crimes against blacks were committed between 1995 and 1997. The attackers were reported to be members of a generations-old Hispanic gang.

The blue-collar town of about 15,000 is bordered by Long Beach and Lakewood. Experts say poverty, truancy and drug abuse there are factors that contribute to racial violence.

“You don’t get as many reports of hate crimes in Beverly Hills as you do in the places left out of the new economy,” said Roberto Lovato, president of the county Human Relations Commission. “Maybe we should stop calling them hate crimes and start calling them class crimes or poverty crimes. It’s have-nots attacking other have-nots.”

Tensions arose in the mid-1990s when blacks began to arrive in the mainly Hispanic city.

Black teen-agers were roughed up on the way home from school, and several homes were damaged with firebombs.

Virgil Henry III, 24, a black man from Van Nuys, was killed there in May 1997 while visiting his parents. He was chased by at least 10 people and beaten to death with an aluminum baseball bat. Drivers stopped at a traffic light told police they heard him repeatedly shout as he ran, “What did I do?”

Carlos Lucero was convicted of murder last year in connection with Henry’s death and sentenced to 16 years to life in prison. Prosecutors said he was a gang member and a son-in-law of a Mexican Mafia lieutenant.

Another black man, Martin Hammonds, 27, was shot to death in 1996. A gang member was convicted of murder.

Another gang member is awaiting trial for the 1997 shooting of Demario Young, 29, of Moreno Valley, who was in town to visit relatives.

Hate crimes have dwindled in the community in the past two years, with only two reported in 1998 and none last year.

Blacks now make up about 5 percent of the population.

However, at least seven families have moved away, and black residents say they don’t dare walk the streets at night.

Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.