LB Warns Haters

Photo and Story By Assistant Editor Zamná Ávila

A community in Long Beach is dismayed and determined to send a message to would be hate crime offenders after series of recent attacks on people who are gay and who may have been perceived to be gay took place.

“Like most of you, when I first heard of what happened, I was outraged,” said District 1 Councilman Robert Garcia at a rally dubbed the Unity Gathering, on Aug. 4, at Bixby Park to denounce the recent incidents. “But what is important to remember is that as these feelings kind of percolate inside all of us, it’s always important to fight all of these feelings with the opposite of hate, and that is love… Hate crimes in the City of Long Beach have no place. People who are involved in hate — that scare people — whether it is because of who they love, the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, the way they look, are not welcome in our city of Long Beach.’

Long Beach Post columnist Greggory Moore related his eye-witness account of how, at about 10 p.m. on July 18, two women sitting outside of the gay-friendly Library Coffeehouse, on the Broadway Corridor, were egged, possibly because they were perceived to be gay. As it turned out, the two women, who had just got out of work, identify as heterosexual.

Days later, at about 5:30 p.m. on July 24, Martin Sanchez, of Ontario, was attacked by 21-year-old Jorge Jhovanoy Ibarrias for admitting he was gay. Long Beach resident Eric Avila (no relation to Random Lengths News’ Zamná Ávila), who moved from the Ontario area a few months ago, had invited Sanchez and three other friends to visit his new home. After leaving the Falcon, a popular gay bar near the corner Falcon and Broadway, he and his friends decided to get something to eat. Walking westbound on Broadway, Avila said he saw Ibarrias and a female couple arguing and another man trying to mediate the argument. Avila, who was walking a few feet ahead, said he overheard that man tell the assailant “he should hookup with those faggots.” Ibarrias asked the group if they were gay. Sanchez, answered “yes,” and Ibarrias punched him to the ground knocking off one of Sanchez’s teeth and cracking five others, as well as sustaining other injuries.

Ibarrias fled, but Avila and another one of his friends ran after him while notifying the police via cell phone. The two men cornered the subject. Ibarrias was apprehended and charged with felony battery and a hate crime. Avila, said Ibarrias admitted what he had done to the police at the scene, but has plead not guilty to the crimes at the preliminary hearings.

Sanchez now is in the process of recovering; he’s had dental surgery, two root canals and a bridge two days earlier.

Michael Fulbright, a Redondo Beach cosmetic dentist pledged to volunteer his services to help repair Sanchez’s teeth. He estimates the procedures needed to cost about $20,000.

Avila has been working with several community groups to help raise money for to help pay for the costly medical expenses. Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske told Avila during a recent council meeting that there also are funds through the State Controller’s Office for victims of hate crimes.

Avila said he doesn’t want the incident to affect his psyche and that he still feels safe in the city and that the outpour of support brings him comfort.

“I think is very important that we send out a powerful message that this is not tolerated,” Avila, 31, told Random Lengths News after the rally. “Nothing is indefinite, but I think it is always a process. You always have to keep going at it, keep advocating, keep fighting, and the more you do it, the less prevalent the crimes become… This is the first step of many that we need to do to raise awareness in our community, to make sure that we all stick together.”

Two other incidents took place just days after the attack on Sanchez.

Shortly after 7 p.m. on July 27, a gay man was walking along Orange Avenue, near Broadway, began talking with another man, who he approached. The suspect punched the gay man in the back and called him, what police describe as “a derogatory term for a gay person.” The man fled. The Long Beach Police Department is has not classified incident as a hate crime and is being reviewed as a possible hate incident.

Another incident took place at about 1:30 a.m. July 31, near the 1800 block of Broadway. A group of men were approached by to males with slurs. The confrontation escalated into a fight. After the fight broke down and two groups seemed to each go on their way, the suspected returned with a larger group — one of them brandishing an undisclosed weapon — and assaulted the victims. Three men sustained serious but non-life threatening injuries.

The latter two incidents are still under investigation and detectives are seeking additional witnesses. The suspects are still at large and no arrests have been made. Anyone with any information about these crimes is encouraged to call Detective Jackie Bezart of the Violent Crimes Detail at (562) 570-7250 or leave an anonymous tip at www.longbeach.gov/police.

Hate crimes are defined as a crime with the primary motive due to a persona person’s protected class. Hate incidents are reported as incidents where a person of a protected class may be addressed but is not the primary motivation for the incident.

Moore also reported on other incidents that have not resulted in physical injuries reportedly have taken place as late as Aug. 3, when a house with a gay flag was egged and a gay couple was insulted by a man driving by on a truck.

Raúl A. Añorve, a Long Beach Human Relations commissioner, a member of the assistance team with the city’s Human Dignity Program and a board member of The Gay and Lesbian Center of Greater Long Beach, said these incidents and the rally are wake up calls to city officials the LGBT community.

He said The Center has been working on a hate crime awareness campaign since hearing about unreported incidents and since Dec. 17, 2010, when a man threw a planter through the front windows of The Center, near Fourth Street and Cherry Avenue. The man then went on to vandalize Ripples, a gay club on Ocean Boulevard. Olivier Rodrich Saintvictor, a 23-year old Ranchos Palos Verdes resident was arrested in February in connection with those incidents and been charged with felony vandalism with a special allegation for hate crimes.

However, the events of the past few weeks have mobilized the community to be more proactive. He said he plans to foster education and awareness, through assemblies such as neighborhood watches and gatherings so that LGBT and diverse communities can get to know each other and their differences, in every district, not in the just the gay-friendly Broadway corridor.

“It affects us as a community because that makes you think, ‘Wow, we are not safe,’” said Añorve, who also noted that too many of these incidents go unreported. “It’s a target on all of us it is an attack on all of us.”

In 2010, there were a total of 10 hate crimes reported in Long Beach, including the two committed allegedly committed by Saintvictor. Seven of those crimes were based on sexual orientation, one was religiously motivated and two were racially motivated. Of those crimes, two suspects, including, Saintvictor, were arrested, who were not connected, according to Lisa Massacani, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach Police Department.

The LBPD reports show that year-to-date from 2011, four crimes were reported only the attack on Sanchez was motivated by sexual orientation; the other three were religiously motivated. The same amount of hate crimes was reported for the same period, January through August, in 2010.

Newly elected Congresswoman Janice Hahn said she believes these types of hate crimes are a form of domestic terrorism.

“They send a poisonous message that some Americans deserve to be victimized solely because of who they are or because of whom they love, and I believe these are the things we ought to pay attention to,” Hahn said.

In other parts of the country incidents of hate crimes have not received the attention of police officers. The Washington Blade reported that on July 30, five lesbians were attacked by two men after refusing their advances and advising them of their sexual orientation, in Washington, D.C. Police officers who responded, restrained the attackers, then let them go; refusing to take down a report.

The attack came a day after transgender woman was targeted by a suspect who fired a gun at her but missed her, in the same area of the northeast area of Washington D.C. and less than two weeks after another D.C. transgender woman was shot to death in the same area northeast.

None of the recent incidents appear to be related but news regarding the attacks on LGBT people seems to have gained more attention around the country, whether it means that more incidents are actually occurring, more are being reported or weather this means recent legislation has sparked these incidents, still is unknown and not easily confirmed.

“We have seen that when the majority doesn’t like certain laws they retaliate. I don’t know if that’s the case here,” Añorve said. “I can’t say that and know one has said that. I think it would be too early to say if there is any connection.”

Some attendees of the Unity Gathering criticized the event as an all-show of politicians but no action, Huffington Post contributor Charles Karel Bouley, said the event was “nothing more than a Pep rally, but one that lacked any real solution as to what to do with the interest or motivation now that it's out in public ready to go. It was nice to see, but didn't do much at all. No one is safer tonight, no one less likely now to be assaulted.”

Añorve disagreed. He said The Center is planning to work with police department to have a forum on hate crimes and outreaching to business owners, as well as public safety type of awareness.