Just prior to the break, we covered a pair of hate crime incidents that occurred in the city of Davis. Now that the holidays are over, it is imperative that we revisit these incidents.
The first set of incidents occurred during the weekend of December 15. Two homes, approximately a block apart were attacked with racially charged graffiti. The official explanation by the police was this was a high school friendship situation that got out of control.
This is not the end of the story. We are equally concerned by the relative lack of coverage the incident received. Buried in a briefly on A-3, a second article appeared on A-4 of the Davis Enterprise.
As one Vanguard reader put it, this was not a valid complaint at all. The psuedononymous reader wrote:
"The Enterprise printed the story where it should be printed, and given its comparatively high readership level, thereby ensuring that many, nany (sic) more people in Davis are aware of the incident than any Vanguard story will."
However, they miss the point here. The highest readership on a paper is front page. Some people will read the brieflies, but those numbers are considerably lower than those who merely see the front page stories. The key question is how important is a hate crimes attack in Davis to the public? Is this something that will generate interest and controversy? The answer to me is yes.
Jann Murray-Garcia and Jonathan London used their periodic Davis Enterprise column to address this issue. In fact, the column was a last second re-write to address an issue they saw as paramount to the community. They used a portion of their space to take the unusual step of criticizing the paper that provides them with space.
Perhaps this is an issue where the youth need to lead us, like Amanda McCaffrey, a junior at Davis High School did in a brilliant letter to the editor.
The first set of incidents occurred during the weekend of December 15. Two homes, approximately a block apart were attacked with racially charged graffiti. The official explanation by the police was this was 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.' "But if that is the case, this remains just as troubling to many in this community. It is troubling if high school students are resorting to racial epithets to resolve their differences. Where do these students get this type of racial animosity? Who is teaching it to them? In other words, in my opinion and the opinion of others, even if an accurate description, the incident remains troubling and something that needs to be addressed by the school and also the community.
This is not the end of the story. We are equally concerned by the relative lack of coverage the incident received. Buried in a briefly on A-3, a second article appeared on A-4 of the Davis Enterprise.
As one Vanguard reader put it, this was not a valid complaint at all. The psuedononymous reader wrote:
"The Enterprise printed the story where it should be printed, and given its comparatively high readership level, thereby ensuring that many, nany (sic) more people in Davis are aware of the incident than any Vanguard story will."
However, they miss the point here. The highest readership on a paper is front page. Some people will read the brieflies, but those numbers are considerably lower than those who merely see the front page stories. The key question is how important is a hate crimes attack in Davis to the public? Is this something that will generate interest and controversy? The answer to me is yes.
Jann Murray-Garcia and Jonathan London used their periodic Davis Enterprise column to address this issue. In fact, the column was a last second re-write to address an issue they saw as paramount to the community. They used a portion of their space to take the unusual step of criticizing the paper that provides them with space.
I (Jann) shivered when a Davis High School student asked me if I knew anything about the hate crime that occurred in Davis on Saturday, Dec. 16. Despite reading that Sunday's paper, I had missed the mention of this incident on Page A3 in a "Briefly" section of The Davis Enterprise.The article goes on to demonstrate the recent history of hate crimes in Davis and why they need more coverage. For me this is a very simple issue that requires a very complex solution. The hate crime is an attack upon an entire segment of a community. When they write "KKK FUCK NIGGERS" on one person's home, they are not just vandalizing someone's property, they are not merely attacking that individual, they are telling an entire segment of the community that they are second class citizens and that they should live in fear.
That mention of the hate crime showed up at all in The Enterprise is progress. To have the Davis Police Department investigate this as a hate crime, report it to our local newspaper and have it in the paper within 24 hours is indeed progress. (Kudos to the DPD!)
None of that happened five years ago with the spray painting of the N-word on a cul-de-sac in West Davis, outside the home of a young African American couple. Back then, it took independent community action from Davis Blacks for Effective Community Action and others to push the police and The Enterprise to cover the story and investigate the event as a hate crime.
This most recent hate crime made it on to Page A3 in The Enterprise's "Briefly" section (Dec. 16). The slightly longer follow-up report of the hate crime announced the arrest of a 17-year-old and the impending arrest of an 18-year-old, both Davis High students. It appeared on Page A4 of Tuesday's Enterprise.
At the risk of breaking professional decorum, Jonathan and I must publicly state that we need better than that from our local newspaper.
Without the substantial reporting and historical context of hate crimes in Davis, our public memory, our community conscience is compromised. Our ability to parent and teach and police, our ability to remember, is compromised.
Perhaps this is an issue where the youth need to lead us, like Amanda McCaffrey, a junior at Davis High School did in a brilliant letter to the editor.
Do you we not want to set better examples for our youth? Do we not want to give them hope that the future will not bring a repetition of past acts of hatred?I am a junior at Davis Senior High School, and am taking Race and Social Justice in U.S. History. Through the course of our studies, our curriculum has proved to us that social change and improvement is impossible without acknowledgment of our society's problems.
Therefore, I was very distressed to see the alarmingly brief article in the Dec. 16 Enterprise about our community's most recent hate crime. I wonder how our community can ever hope to make appreciable progress in our tolerance level if we are not made fully aware of the very issues that make it impossible.
Although the community may prefer to remain in blissful ignorance with regards to local intolerance, it is essential that we be made to confront these issues that are wounding our society beyond repair. I do not mean to demand that our newspaper publish spiteful accounts or call our neighbors to arms; I merely suggest that we give those who have been hurt by prejudiced and ignorant acts the dignity of recognizing that pain.
In short, should we not as this community come together to address the issue of hate crimes, to attack these heinous and debilitating attacks at their roots?
After the original article, someone asked what more I wanted to see--jail time? Absolutely not. Jail time for the perpetrators does not even begin to address the problem. The first thing I want to see is community awareness. I want this community to understand that there is still a problem. Even if it is only a small and ignorant minority for whom it is a problem for, we need awareness. We do not get awareness when we have an issue that is buried in the middle of the paper just as people are going into their holiday celebration mode.
Second, this is an opportunity. We have a new police chief. This is a freebie for him. This is where the police have an opportunity to reach out to a community that often feels separate and show them that the police care and will be vigilant in attacking incidents of hate crimes. The police can take the lead here and help to raise community awareness.
Unfortunately as critics are undoubtedly quick to point out, none of these are solutions to the problem. Frankly if I knew more education was the answer, if I knew a more vigilant police force was the answer, if I knew more jail time was the answer, if I knew certain programs were the answer, the problem would have been solved long ago. Obvious there is no magic bullet here. No simple answer. No fix-all solution.
But one thing I know is not the answer is burying out head in the sand and ignoring it because it is ugly and unseemly and it makes us feel uncomfortable and it makes us perhaps question ourselves (if we are being honest) in ways that magnify that discomfort. But we have to do it, because we cannot afford to allow another generation to grow up believing that they can express their anger, frustration, or resolve their problems by resorting to racial epithets. We just cannot do that anymore. These things tend to fester unless dealt with in an appropriate manner.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
