Students set to battle hate crimes

Monday, October 26, 1998

Students set to battle hate crimes

USAC: Activists want to create safe campus, need university’s
help

By Barbara Ortutay

Daily Bruin Staff

With recent high-profile cases giving hate crimes national
attention, activists have called for a re-evaluation of the issues
surrounding them.

And UCLA is no exception.

For students taking part in the Undergraduate Students
Association Council’s (USAC) Hate Crime Prevention Campaign,
addressing these crimes is of vital importance.

"The idea of a hate crime is that people are targeted because of
who they are," said USAC Facilities Commissioner Trinh Huynh, the
campaign’s organizer.

"I don’t think many UCLA students are aware of this issue," she
added.

The campaign seeks to educate students about hate crimes,
increase campus safety and, on a national level, urge Congress to
pass the dormant Hate Crime Prevention Act.

Currently, the campaign is in its beginning stages, and its
strategies are still being developed, according to Huynh.

So far, the Hate Crimes Prevention Campaign has met twice to set
out long and short-term goals.

Immediate objectives include expanding university policy to
define crimes committed on the Internet (such as e-mail harassment)
and on the basis of gender, disability and sexual orientation as
hate crimes.

"We also want to redefine Å’campus’ to include sidewalks and
adjacent parking lots," Huynh said.

"This is important because these are the places where a lot of
the hate crimes occur," she added."

UCLA does not have a specific hate crime policy, according to
Robert Naples, assistant vice chancellor of student and campus
life.

He added that despite not having any specific policy, the
administration will take into consideration any racial or gender
bias involved in direct violations of university policy.

Among other things, campaign organizers want to pass a
resolution on hate crimes and work with the administration, as well
as with on-campus and community organizations, to raise hate crime
awareness.

According to Huynh, the Women’s Resource Center, the Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Campus Resource Center and
many of the student advocacy groups would be valuable resources for
the campaign.

USAC General Representative Mike de la Rocha said rape should
also be regarded as a hate crime.

"Any time issues of power come up, it’s a hate crime." he
said.

During their first meeting, campaign organizers also defined
what a "safe campus" should mean.

Among other things, the definition included an enforceable code
of conduct, available resources and being able to walk around
campus without the fear of being attacked.

According to campaign participants, raising campus-wide
awareness and educating the community about hate crimes is as
crucial as having policies implemented.

"No one knows enough about hate crimes. Too many people think
that it can’t happen to them, so they pretend it doesn’t happen at
all," said Trish Eichar, a first-year computer science student.

USAC Commissioner Huynh said it is important to show people how
hate crimes can affect them personally.

Unfortunately, this often doesn’t happen until someone they know
is a victim of a hate crime.

"I wasn’t really aware of hate crimes until Thien Minh Ly was
killed," Huynh said, referring to the alumnus and former Vietnamese
Student Union leader who was stabbed to death by an alleged white
supremacist in 1997.

"Since then, the Vietnamese Student Union has been painfully
aware of hate crimes," she said.

"There is a lot of underrepresentation and misrepresentation
about hate crimes," she added. "You’d never think that in this day
and age people are killed because of who they are."

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