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Jewish business defaced; hate crimes up in San Francisco
Jewish business defaced; hate crimes up in San Francisco. Azenith Smith reports
SAN FRANCISCO - New numbers from San Francisco police show hate crimes are on the rise in 2021.
And on Sunday night, a popular cafe in the Mission District was tagged with anti-Semitic hate speech. It’s another example of the growing number of hate-related cases happening in the city.
The latest numbers indicate San Francisco has seen 28 reported hate crimes that means one hate crime every five and half days. The department is now expanding its tip line to nine languages.
Outside Manny’s in San Francisco’s Mission District on Sunday, those walking by and dining out had an unsavory view.
Words spewing hate in big blue letters "Racist pigz" and "Free Palestine" were on the Jewish-owned venue.
"It bums me out," said Kristen Meyer of Pacifica. "It’s right next to my Yoga studio Love Story and that’s how it should be. Everyone should feel welcomed."
"It’s not comfortable to see these messages," said Dan Kennedy of San Francisco. "At the same time, I’m used to seeing a lot of graffiti in the Mission."
The police chief acknowledges there have been other violent acts toward communities of color that may not meet the legal definition of a hate crime.
Of the 28 crimes, the majority are Anti-Asian at 39 percent, Anti-Black at 18 percent and Anti-Jewish at 14 percent.
All of last year, San Francisco saw 48 reported hate crimes, one report every seven and half days.
"We are here to announce that we are introducing a multilingual hate crime tip line," said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott.
The tip line (415) 558-5588 has been expanded to accept callers speaking nine languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai. Asian American community leaders rallied for it.
"We all recognize that hate does not discriminate, hate affects all of us," said APAPA Chair Dennis Wu.
"We hope that this will help us solve some of the hate that’s going on in our community which is totally unacceptable," said Chief Bill Scott.
"I think there are a lot of people who are afraid to report, either English isn’t their first language or they are afraid of the police as well," said Sarah Talpas of San Francisco.
Talpas, a Minneapolis transplant, sees the tip line as a starting point to push out hate.
"Trying to work on building stronger communities and helping with infrastructure I think is a major thing," said Talpas. "A lot of these hate crimes are coming from ignorance and fear."
Tip line callers can remain anonymous. Witnesses to crimes in progress are always urged to call 911.
Azenith Smith is a reporter for KTVU. Email Azenith at azenith.smith@fox.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram @AzenithKTVU or Facebook or ktvu.com.