Orange County – one of the most diverse places in the country – continues to struggle with addressing hate crimes more than 50 years after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis.
And in the midst of that struggle, county leaders are dialing back a commission responsible for researching ways to combat hate and promote tolerance as well as producing the county’s annual hate crime report.
Less than a week before Martin Luther King Day, OC Board of Supervisors narrowly voted to shrink the Human Relations Commission, decrease the number of meetings they have yearly and gag commissioners from issuing statements and press releases.
[Read: Orange County Gags Commission Created to Combat Hate Crimes]
Supervisors argued that they needed to roll back the commission so that it can focus on creating a better system for data collection on hate crimes and recalibrate its efforts.
“This is an opportunity to refocus this commission, and I think what we are doing here is trying to limit our consideration of the issue to work on improving the systems and work on improving the processes,” said Supervisor Don Wagner at last week’s meeting.
The rollback came the same month county leaders quietly released the 2023 OC annual hate crime report that saw the number of reported hate crimes drop for the first time in seven years.
To view the 2023 Annual Hate Crime Report, click here.
It’s also the first report the county has produced on the issue since they fired Groundswell – a nonprofit that used to prepare the annual assessment – and the first one that doesn’t account for the number of reported hate incidents.
Click here for the State Attorney General’s definitions of a hate crime vs a hate incident.
Concerns About OC’s New Approach to Tracking Hate
Organizations like the Council on American Islamic Relations Greater Los Angeles (CAIR) – a nonprofit based in Anaheim that tracks hate crimes against the Muslim community – are raising concerns about the changes in producing the latest report.
Amr Shabaik, legal director of the group, in an emailed statement last week sent to the Voice of OC raised concerns about leaving out hate incidents, not collaborating with community-based nonprofits on the report and relying solely on law enforcement data.
“The departure from historical collaboration between Orange County and community-based organizations means an incomplete picture of how hate is impacting our county,” he said, adding that groups like his are “the first responders to hate.”
“While hate incidents may not rise to the level of a crime, they may violate civil rights laws and undoubtedly create significant harm and feelings of fear and marginalization within impacted communities.”
Shabaik also is concerned about the supervisors’ decision to shrink and gag the human relations commission.
“While the Commission is not without its flaws,” he said. “The Commission includes many established and well-meaning individuals and it serves an important role in tracking, responding to, and eliminating hate and intolerance in Orange County.”
Molly Nichelson, a spokeswoman for the county, did not respond to emailed questions about the concerns Wednesday.
Natalie Moser, a human relations commissioner and former Huntington Beach City Councilwoman, in a phone interview Wednesday echoed concerns made by OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento at last week’s supervisor meeting.
“Limiting the number of people and maybe the representation to only people appointed by supervisors might reflect a narrowing of perspectives at a time when broader representation is essential to the mission of the commission,” she said.
Last week’s decision by the supervisors means Moser will no longer serve on the commission.
The commissioner also said she understands the need for a standardized methodology when it comes to collecting hate crime and incident data.
“The most important thing is that we have a clear picture that’s trusted in the community, so that we understand from year to year what the level of hate is that creates fear within our community, because our goal is to create a safe community,” Moser said.
She said she hopes the next county report will also include hate incidents as well and that the county will collaborate with community based organizations not just law enforcement on creating the report.
“I hope that excluding hate incidents this year is not repeated next year,” she said. “To not acknowledge that – I imagine for people that have experienced these things, discourages them from reporting.”
Moser also said Groundswell brought a lot of expertise to the issue through their outreach and engagement efforts with the community.
Alison Edwards, CEO of Groundswell, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Hate Crimes in 2023
The county’s 2023 report found there were 95 reported hate crimes in Orange County – a drop from 112 reported hate crimes in 2022. It’s the first time that number has gone down since 2016.
However, Groundswell reported 162 hate crimes in 2022 – something county officials seem to have revised in their latest accounting.
Similar to last year, the majority of reported hate crimes targeted Black, Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities in Orange County, according to the 2023 report.
The findings also come after Arab American, Muslim and Jewish community leaders warned of an uptick in hate crimes in OC since war broke out in Israel and Palestine on Oct. 7, 2023 after a surprise Hamas attack on Israel that triggered retaliatory attacks in Gaza and beyond.
Last week, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal.
The county’s report found there were three anti-Arab, three anti-Muslim and 14 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023 in OC.
Shabaik said the county report doesn’t capture the full picture of hate experienced by his community, pointing to a report from CAIR that found the nonprofit received over 8,000 complaints of bias nationwide – 600 of which were reported to his chapter.
“We know that in 2023, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Arab hate were at an all-time high. The exclusion of community-based organizations and the sole reliance on incomplete numbers of hate crimes reported to law enforcement does not capture this reality,” Shabaik said.
Matt Friedman, Regional Director of Anti-Defamation League Orange County & Long Beach, also expressed concern about incomplete data in the new report.
“We are very strong supporters of government entities collecting that data and reporting on that data — hate crimes and hate incidents — but to change the way it’s getting collected and where they’re getting data from, it makes an analysis of the data more challenging,” Friedman said.
According to an ADL report, there were 88 antisemitic incidents of hate in 2023 in the Orange County & Long Beach area, an increase from 55 in 2022.
“It would be wonderful if there was a legitimate decrease in Orange County, that would be great, but at the same time, I’m a little cautious to read too much into those numbers,” Friedman said.
About 18% of the crimes in the county report happened in Santa Ana and 15% happened in Irvine.
The report clarifies that the 95 total hate crime events may be underrepresented since four cities — Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Orange and Westminster — partially reported data for 2023.
According to the assessment, the number of reported hate crimes in Orange County made up about 5% of the number of reported hate crimes across the state.
Statewide, there were 1,970 reported hate crime events in 2023, down from the 2,120 events reported in 2022, according to the 2023 Attorney General report.
To view the statewide 2023 Hate Crime Report, click here.
A Void in Combating Hate in Orange County
It is unclear what the commission has been doing for the last six months since supervisors decided not to renew their contract with Groundswell.
The commission itself has not met since June 2024 – with the last five meetings being canceled.
Moser said the commission wasn’t given a lot of information as to why the meetings were canceled.
At the same time, only one county staffer has been assigned to the commission, Jessica Witt – the county’s director of Government and Community Relations.
Witt said without the proper staffing, community outreach and educational programs aimed at building more tolerance aren’t taking place.
“Since that has been moved internally to the CEO’s office, we currently don’t have that portion of it, because right now, you’re looking at the staffing of the Human Relations Commission right before you,” she told supervisors at last week’s meeting.
“Party of one.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.