Earlier this year CAHRO
got a call from Cynthia Manor, a journalism student at UC Santa Cruz, requesting assistance in responding to hate incidents in the Santa Cruz area. Logically what was needed was a hate crime network which would convene and
work on solutions to prevent any further escalation of hate incidents and in the event of an actual crime, to respond to it. Our initial steps would be to hold a forum on hate crime which works to bring public
attention to the issue of hate violence and help gather support and interest in building a network. The real work of building a network would have to come after the forum. The forum could not be seen as an end in and of
itself, but merely as a starting point.
The forum was to be another in a series of forums CAHRO has co-sponsored in areas of California lacking organized group(s) who can work to prevent and respond to hate.
Other forums were held in the Central Valley, in California north of San Francisco and Sacramento, and in the Bay Area outside of San Francisco. CAHRO would arrange for the participation of appropriate state and federal officials
who respond to hate crimes and hate violence to serve on a panel to hear testimony of hate violence victims, families, and witnesses, and the local organizer would secure the participation of local officials and arrange for the
testimony. Typically, a panel of a dozen or more people would take 20 minutes to introduce themselves and the rest of the evening would be spent listening to the riveting stories of people who have been victims of hate
violence.
Victims usually include young students, older youth and adults. They are African-American, Asian-American, European-American, Latino and Native-American, people with disabilities and homeless
people. They are straight and gay / lesbian / bisexual and transgendered. Some are victims of hate groups, others are victims of bigots acting alone, but they all have similarly been traumatized by their
experiences. Their stories provoke shock, outrage, sympathy, anger, and sorrow. But the point of the forum is to make sure the stories stimulate action rather than a sense of helplessness.
In Santa
Cruz, as elsewhere, CAHRO provided the organizers with an outline of the structure of a typical network. It contains components for working with schools, law enforcement, community organizations, the faith community, youth
and the media. Typical objectives and likely participants for each section are included in the material provided. These materials provide answers to audience questions about what can be done and how. All that is needed
is the support and resources for implementing the ideas.
Though it was our goal to form an anti-hate violence network in Santa Cruz, we realized that they lacked the resources and funding needed to create a network.
This experience as in our attempts at building a network in Stockton, Redding and Ukiah has taught us that unless there is a human relations commission or established organization to take on the role of coordinator it is unlikely
that the resources will be available to build an anti-hate violence network that can be sustained.
In reassessing the situation in Santa Cruz, it became clear that our primary effort should be to assist in the
formation of a Commission which can support the formation of a network and sustain it in the long run.
Following the forum held in Santa Cruz, a follow-up meeting was scheduled and forum participants were
invited to attend to further discuss ways of building support to address hate violence. A city councilman, a representative of the school district and law enforcement were all represented at the follow-up meeting and there
was a consensus that the first step was to build a city or county human relations commission to serve Santa Cruz. CAHRO will continue to work with Santa Cruz to provide technical assistance and training for every aspect of
building a human relations commission.
