There have now been a couple of Hate Crime Incidents that have struck Davis in the last week.
I received an email from one of the victims of the attack last weekend, someone I know casually. The garage door of their house was tagged with "KKK FUCK NIGGERS." Two of the residents were white while the other was biracial. The police believe it was a target of opportunity either struck along the way or as an afterthought because the main target appeared to be a street over--an African-American family whose home was apparently much more extensively hit with graffiti described as "white supremacist."
The troubling aspect to the individual involved and to a number of people I have since spoken with is the apparent lack of response in Davis either by the Davis Police Department and small and scant coverage in the newspaper.
The police detective the victim spoke with speculated that not much will happen to the culprits--both of them students at Davis High School. At most they'll receive probation and have community service and pay a fine.
The police describe this as a high school friendship situation that got out of control.
And yet it happened again--yesterday morning. This time at Holmes Junior High.
The Enterprise reports again a small article in the middle of the paper:
It is before Christmas. People are going on vacation. But we cannot just let these things drop. Come the first week of January this issue will be revisited. My friend, Jann Murray-Garcia has a late-breaking op-ed in the Davis Enterprise tomorrow on this very subject. The issue of hate crimes in Davis has come up again and again. Every time they think they have a handle on it, it comes back.
People are willing to dismiss this stuff as a high school dispute that got out of hand. I just cannot buy that. A community cannot afford to turn a blind eye when an incident with hatred embedded in racial terminology pops up. It has to deal with it head on to ensure that it happens never again in this community. That requires vigilance and it requires those in the position to both deal with the public and educate the public to step up and take strong and proactive stances. If they do not, these incidents will repeat, they will increase, and then we will have a real problem on our hands.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
I received an email from one of the victims of the attack last weekend, someone I know casually. The garage door of their house was tagged with "KKK FUCK NIGGERS." Two of the residents were white while the other was biracial. The police believe it was a target of opportunity either struck along the way or as an afterthought because the main target appeared to be a street over--an African-American family whose home was apparently much more extensively hit with graffiti described as "white supremacist."
The troubling aspect to the individual involved and to a number of people I have since spoken with is the apparent lack of response in Davis either by the Davis Police Department and small and scant coverage in the newspaper.
The police detective the victim spoke with speculated that not much will happen to the culprits--both of them students at Davis High School. At most they'll receive probation and have community service and pay a fine.
The police describe this as a high school friendship situation that got out of control.
"'This is high school tensions that got way out of hand,' [Sgt. Scott] Smith said today. 'Now these kids are looking at significant charges because they chose to resolve their friendship issues in the way that they did.' "Community leaders are concerned about this incident and also the lack of public outcry. But then again, what is the public to do when such stories are buried in the middle of the paper?
And yet it happened again--yesterday morning. This time at Holmes Junior High.
The Enterprise reports again a small article in the middle of the paper:
"Davis police are investigating as a hate crime an incident of graffiti discovered this morning at Holmes Junior High School.
An employee of the 1220 Drexel Drive school arrived on campus at about 7 a.m. to find the graffiti spray-painted with silver paint on lockers, windows and the gymnasium wall, Davis police Sgt. John Wilson said.
'Some of it appeared to be gang-related, some of it appeared to be racially related, and some of it was just generally nasty,' Wilson said. The racial content included derogatory terms for Asians and African-Americans, he added.
So far, no suspects have been identified, 'but we're still very early into it,' Wilson said. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Davis Police Department at 747-5400.
The incident comes on the heels of another local hate crime in which graffiti, some of it targeting African-Americans, was spray-painted on the garages of two East Davis homes last weekend.
Davis police have cited a 17-year-old boy for vandalism with a hate-crime enhancement and have requested similar charges be filed against an 18-year-old male in connection with the crimes, which police said stemmed from friendship tensions among a group of Davis High School students. "
It is before Christmas. People are going on vacation. But we cannot just let these things drop. Come the first week of January this issue will be revisited. My friend, Jann Murray-Garcia has a late-breaking op-ed in the Davis Enterprise tomorrow on this very subject. The issue of hate crimes in Davis has come up again and again. Every time they think they have a handle on it, it comes back.
People are willing to dismiss this stuff as a high school dispute that got out of hand. I just cannot buy that. A community cannot afford to turn a blind eye when an incident with hatred embedded in racial terminology pops up. It has to deal with it head on to ensure that it happens never again in this community. That requires vigilance and it requires those in the position to both deal with the public and educate the public to step up and take strong and proactive stances. If they do not, these incidents will repeat, they will increase, and then we will have a real problem on our hands.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
