LA Police Charge Four for Hate Crimes
Los Angeles, CA- Police arrested three Los Angeles men in connection to hate crimes targeting an African-American Family in Compton.
Los Angeles is besieged with a Latino, Black, and White Supremacists gangs where the racial tensions run high and sometimes erupt into hate crimes. But it’s not just a gang problem.
This week alone Los Angeles and other area police are dealing with the fallout of two hate crimes targeted towards two different ethnic groups.
Last week, in El Cajon, a group or and individual set a church ablaze. The fire, according to NBC News, began at 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning at the Nyssa Greek Orthodox Church.
The blaze raged for minutes before crews from Cal Fire, San Miguel Fire and two other local departments were able to extinguish it.
Luckily there was no one inside the church when the fire was set. But Federal Agents from the ATF and officers from the Sheriff’s Bomb and Explosives squad were called to the scene to investigate.
The fire caused close to $250,000 in damage and police quickly came up with and arrested a suspect. They charged Darin Williams, 38, suspicion of arson, burglary and hate crime, NBC reported.
Within days another hate crime in Compton leads to the arrest of three Latino men. The three men claimed to be part of a local gang targeted an African- American family they were trying to drive out of Compton, according to NBC News.
The sheriff’s office said that the three men wielded metal pipes and shouted racial slurs to intimidate a black man who had just moved into the area. One of the suspects allegedly pointed a handgun at the victim while he was allegedly being beaten by another man.
The three men, according to ABC News returned to the scene with 20 of their gang members. The large group surrounded the man’s home and continued to shout racial slurs calling them the N-word and telling them they were not allowed to live in the neighborhood.
Officials say the group have been intimidating the family or four, including two children, for several days by driving by their home, one suspect allegedly threw a beer bottle through one of the windows in the home.
Police arrested three suspects one of which is a juvenile; they face hate crime charges.
Hate crimes are not exclusive to Los Angeles, but it is a continuing problem that increased 15 percent last fall. When a person is charged with a hate crime in addition to another crime such as vandalism, intimidation and burglary, it adds up to a year of imprisonment to your original charges, depending on the severity, if you are convicted.
It takes extensive resources to investigate and combat hate crimes so the fines can costly and total up to $5,000 just for the hate crime.
These are charges that need to be taken seriously, and if you believe you have been wrongfully charged with a hate or any other crime, you must have a practiced attorney with the skills to build a highly effective defense. Los Angeles criminal attorney Robert Bernstein will dedicate his time and resources to making sure you don’t go to prison.
