Policy Text
TRAINING BULLETIN
Evaluation Coordinator: Commander
Automatic Revision Cycle: Years
partment Training Bulletins shall be used to advise members of current police techniques and
procedures and shall constitute official policy.” Index Number: IV-K
Alpha Index: Hate Crimes Date of Issue / Revision
27 Apr 01
“De
Police Response to Hate Crimes
Introduction
The ramifications of a hate crime reach beyond the actual incident. In addition to the crime's
significance for the victim, a hate crime has an impact on the victim's entire community and,
ultimately, on the relationship between that community and the Police Department.
In committing a hate crime, the perpetrator aims not only to terrify or harm one individual but to
threaten and terrorize the entire group to which the victim belongs.
If members of “targeted groups” come to see police officers as insensitive or indifferent to their
plight, they lose confidence in th e Department and feel that they ha ve no recourse within the legal
system. Department policy requires officers regard any incident believed to be a hate crime as a serious
incident and give such incident priority attention.
General Order M-13, Reporting and Investigating Hate Crime, states that it is the Department's
intention to “diligen tly and aggressively protect the rights of all persons, regardless of their race,
ethnicity, national origin, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental condition, or any other factor.”
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Hate Crimes, Index Number IV-K
Definition and Examples of Hate Crimes
General Order M-13 defines a hate crime as follows:
A hate crime is any criminal act or attempte d criminal act directed against a person(s),
public agency, or private in stitution based on the victim's actual or perceived race,
nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disa bility, or gender or because the agency or
institution is identified or associated with a person or group of an identifiable race,
religion, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, or gender. A hate crime includes an
act which results in injury, however slight; a verbal threat of violence which apparently can be carried out; an act which results in property damage; and property damage or
other criminal act(s) directed agai nst a public place or private agency.
Hate crimes range in intensity from verbal inti midation and harassment to damage and desecration
of property and physical violence and murder.
Among the hate crimes committed in Calif ornia in 1999 we re the following:
• A cross burning at the home of a black family in Brentwood
• A shooting at a Jewish synagogue in Los Angeles
• Firebomb attacks on synagogues in Sacramento
• Death threats and racially abusive mail sent to the homes and offices of politicians and
civil rights activists in Oakland and Alameda
• Smashed windows and graffiti at an Arab-American delicatessen in San Francisco
• Violent assaults on homosexual men in San Francisco
• Racial slurs painted on the residence of an Hispanic family in Oakland
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27 Apr 01 ● Oakland Police Department
Recognition and Identification of Hate Crimes
While many crimes contain an element of malice, not all crimes are hate crimes.
The key element differentiating a hate crime from other crimes of a similar nature is motive.
A brick thrown through a window may be a simple act of vandalism. A brick thrown through a window may be vandalism and a hate crime if the deed is motivated by racial animosity.
The following elements str ongly indicate that an incident is a hate crime:
• The presence of visible symbols of hate
Examples of “visible symbols” of hate sometimes constitute prima facie evidence and may include written racial slur s and graffiti, a burning cr oss, Nazi party insignia,
desecration of venerated objects in a pl ace of worship, damage or defacement of
tombstones, and/or arson used to destroy religious objects or property.
• Expressions of hatred by the perpetrators as reported by victims and witnesses
When they fall within the specifications of the law, words, by themselves, can constitute
a crime. Therefore, the account given by a victim and by witnesses of what the
perpetrators said may be critically important as evidence, and taunts and racial or sexual
slurs – language which reveals motive-must be recorded exactly on the Crime Report or
Statement Form.
• The absence of any other apparent motive
The probability that an individual has been att acked solely on the ba sis of race, sex, or
sexual preference may be supported by showin g the lack of previous contact, argument,
or confrontation between the victim and offender and by the perpetrator's random
selection of victim(s).
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Hate Crimes, Index Number IV-K
Positive answers to the following questions strongly indicate that a hate crime may have occurred:
• Is the victim different from the suspected pe rpetrator(s) with regard to race, religion,
ethnicity, or sexual orientation?
• Did the incident occur because of this difference?
• Did the victim recently move into the area? Is his or her family the only one or one of a
few families of their racial, ethnic, or religious group in the neighborhood?
• Was the victim put in a state of fear by the incident? Did the perpetrator commit the
crime with the goal of creating such fear?
• Is there a connection between the date of the incident and a holiday or special program or
event celebrated by the victim's group, such as Cinco de Mayo, Passover, or Juneteenth?
• Has an organized hate group claimed a role in the incident? Has propaganda been dis-
tributed in the neighborhood? Have similar incidents occurred in the area?
• Does the M.O. suggest a “copycat” syndrom e, which might