June 23, 2005

Not in my front yard!

Residents and city officials wage war on hate crimes

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

On Wednesday, 18-year-old Matthew Baptista was arraigned in San Jose, charged with nine counts of misdemeanor hate crimes against several of his neighbors.

Last week, a neighborhood was still reeling from the racial slurs and swastikas burned into their lawns. Clint Corbari shows the swastika in front of his duplex to Councilmember Linda J. LeZotte. Photo by Kymberli W. Brady

The court appearance lasted long enough to acknowledge new defense counsel, relieve the public defender, and file a continuance for a later date.

Last week, a neighborhood was still reeling from the racial slurs and swastikas burned into their lawns, a crime that triggered a town hall meeting with city leaders and an attack on hate.

While the streaming metallic curtain behind them billowed as if about to erupt in a burlesque review, the seven-member panel seated before it were extremely serious.

Their message was clear.

“Were not going to take it anymore.”

By the time the crowd filed out of the Cypress Senior Center multi-purpose room on June 16, Councilmember Linda J. LeZotte, County Supervisor James Beall, Sheriff Laurie Smith, San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis, Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, NAACP President Rick Callender, and members of the Santa Clara County Network for a Hate Free Community publicly condemned the recent hate crimes that left eight swastikas and a racial slur chemically burned into nine front lawns along South Cypress Avenue less than two blocks away. Two elementary schools were also targeted.

Of the victims, two were Jewish and one African American.

Two weeks after the incident, two teens—Matthew Baptista, 18 and an unidentified 17-year-old male—were arrested after a joint investigation by the city and county authorities.

The juvenile was booked into Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall and later released.

The lawns on the quiet Cypress street scared with racial slurs at least have the neighbors talking to each other—the one positive thing that comes out of every tragedy. Photos by Kymberli W. Brady

Baptista was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on $250,000 bail. He was later charged with nine counts of misdemeanor hate crimes, as department research revealed that costs associated with repairing the damages fell below the $400 threshold necessary to trigger a felony charge.

“I got an estimate for a lot more than that,” argued Clint Corbari. “Where do I get in touch with your landscaper?”

Meanwhile, The San Jose/Silicon Valley branch of the NAACP posted a $1,000 reward and then upped it to $2,500.
They also pledged to raise money to help the victims offset the cost of repairs.

If convicted, Baptista faces jail time, attendance at a court-ordered program on racial sensitivity, payment to community-based organizations to fight hate crimes, and restitution to the victims. While not as harsh as hoped, Davis vowed to send a message with this case.

“It’s not just eight or nine victims here,” he said. “It’s the whole community.”

Although seven of the nine charges fall within the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s jurisdiction and the other two within San Jose boundaries, Sheriff Smith assured residents that the two agencies would work together.

According to Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, Baptista will do time, especially with a felony DUI charge wrapped around the hate crime charges.

“It was working with citizens who were observant, who gave information about what was happening in this neighborhood that helped solve this crime,” said Councilwoman LeZotte.

“This case is strong,” he assured the room. “It is very strong. I assure you we will aggressively be prosecuting this case.”

“It was tough,” admitted Clint Corbari, who owns the duplex hit especially hard. “It’s hard directing that at my neighbor—and he is a man of color.”

Corbari said he wasn’t sure if he and his tenant were targeted. Baptista lives just two doors down and based on the trail, he can’t say for sure that they all weren’t targeted or if it was random.

“He was basically new to the neighborhood and I didn’t know who he was,” Corbari said. “But it looks like he just came out of his door, started over there, and then headed right down the street.”

In the meantime, the lawns on the quiet Cypress street scared with Nazi symbols and racial slurs at least have the neighbors talking to each other—the one positive thing that comes out of every tragedy. It’s the start of the community building process that Davis hopes to use in a combined attack of education and community participation that, based on 2003-2004 statistics, is promising.

“When the number of hate crimes drop significantly, the process is working,” he said.

“There were only 16 cases in 2004. When I say only 16, I mean we’re not happy about that either, but when we see a decrease by more than half from one year to the next, we know it’s not just what the police department is doing, it’s also what the citizens are doing. It’s the effort by the schools and groups, and our Parks and Rec.

From left: Sheriff Laurie Smith, San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP President Rick Callender, Wiggsy Sivertsteen, San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis, County Supervisor James Beall, Councilmember Linda J. LeZotte, and Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky listen to the community speak out at the meeting.

Departments, as well as a commitment from the DA’s office to do something about it,” said Davis.

“It was a citizen and good police work,” began Council-woman LeZotte. “It was working with citizens who were observant, who gave information about what was happening in this neighborhood that helped solve this crime-—and help solve it very quickly. I suggest that we take this horrible incident and turn it into some real community building.”

“We know we’re having success with this effort,” Davis added. “We’re committed to seeing to it that we know how to fight this.

“We know that the steps the police department takes are not enough,” he said. “It’s not up to us to just solve the crime. There’s a larger issue that we need to solve as a community. You need to say that you’re not going to tolerate it in your community. We place a very high priority on hate crimes, but the community has to help. We can’t do it by ourselves.”

Crime in your neighborhood can be tracked on the San Jose Police Department Web site. Log on to www.sjpd.org Citizens with any information regarding this or other cases are encouraged to contact authorities by calling any of the following officers: Det. Sgt. Hayward Brandon or Detective Jose Uribe with the SJPD Juvenile Unit, (408) 277-4161, Sgt. Janet Shannon, (408) 808-4500 of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office, or Det. Robert Bosworth, (408) 868-6632. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call the Crime Stoppers line at (408) 947-STOP.