Recent History of Hate Events & Hate Crimes in Humboldt County, California

Folks in Humboldt County, who have been paying attention to the lost coast news over the past six years, are likely aware of the increasing frequency trend of “Hate Crimes” and “Hate Events” popping up in the headlines.

Hate Events are seemingly on the rise. Can Humboldt be saved?

Indeed, with a simple walk down Humboldt memory lane, if one were resting their faith on the collection of headlines and the credibility of those who published them, one could come to the worrisome conclusion that Humboldt is changing for the worse.

However, if all the community hears is one side of the story regarding hate events, like from local podcasters and radio stations such as KMUD and Humboldt Last Week, the result is a specific narrative focus at the expense of the objective truth. A keen speculative mind is paramount to finding the truth, as one would experience in a court of law, in reflection of those who would play favorites with the facts in the court of public opinion.

Are all Hate Events equal to hate crimes?

Listening to the audio compilation on the video above, which details hate events in Humboldt as far back as six years ago, running from most recent to oldest. The Hate Events details range from crimes committed based on the perpetrator’s hateful disposition to their victims. Other Hate Events seem more like what we’ve all come to expect from all sides of the political spectrum, as the founder of Wild Souls Ranch, Savanah McCarty, pointed out so eloquently.

Not every single reported crime or “hate event” is legitimate. Unsavory individuals who lack basic morals consistently take advantage of systems like these at the expense of their enemies throughout human history.

Hate Events & Hate Crimes used as cheap political tactics?

It is equally plausible that a percentage of the controversies regarding the alleged “hate crimes” and “hate events” is simply a combination of the cheapening of such terms mixed with the tendency of those in political power to focus on expedient details of a story that fit their objectives while omitting exculpatory evidence that works against those objectives.

A recipe of time, dedication, discernment, and care must be mixed with water, or perhaps coffee, at a 1:1 ratio to bake this cake with sufficient results in terms of seeking the truth.

Due to the fact very few of us have the luxury of time to commit to such an expedition, Lost Coast Populist felt compelled to provide the County with the following recent history of alleged Hate Crimes and Hate Events and our pragmatic investigative breakdown on each so-as-to hopefully bring some clarity and conclusion to this seemingly ubiquitous local element.

Laying Down a Foundation Based on Real “Hate Crimes”

Because of the sheer volume of case material, detail to consider, and then our subsequent breakdown, we will release this in a series of episodes, this being episode number one. In this first episode, we list alleged hate crimes and hate events or incidents as reported on by local media known for their overt woke bias.

While the bias is evident in their reporting, the incidents themself appear to be crimes, likely provoked by the hate alleged.

Setting the foundation with this history of reporting, we will have a better understanding of the situation at hand in Humboldt County to draw conclusions regarding more recent allegations of hate events and hate speech attributed to concerned parents who showed up to protest an all-ages drag show at The Jefferson Center on October 23rd, 2022.

Times-Standard explains the difference: Hate Event v Hate Crime.

As a primer, in the following excerpt from Times-Standard, we find a very suitable contrast between actual “Hate crimes” and “Hate Events,” or incidents as they were referred to here:

TIMELINE of Humboldt Hate Events:
March 26th, 2017 – July 14th, 2022

March 26th, 2017

HUMBOLDTS HIDDEN HATE

“People fear what they don’t understand,” Chandler said. “Most of these people aren’t used to seeing people of color. It’s a shock to their system as well. And when people fear something they lash out in hate towards it.”

Thompson said he doesn’t assume that all Humboldt County locals are prejudiced. “It’s more ignorance,” Thompson said.

“I was told it would be liberal and diverse, and I don’t consider this to be diverse,” Thompson said.

“There isn’t a lot of ethnic and racial diversity in this region, except for what the university contributes,” Rossbacher said.

“We do end up being a very diverse community as a university in the midst of a region that is far less diverse. That certainly creates some tensions.”

September 27th, 2019

HSU Responds to Recent Knife Incident Near Campus: ‘No Place For Hate, No Room For Violence’f

On the evening of the incident, University police made a determination that there was no imminent or immediate threat to the campus community or to the student.

The campus followed standard university protocol in making this decision. HSU complies with the Clery Timely Warning Notice/ Security Alert Notification guidelines.

There was also no evidence that the alleged incident was motivated by the student’s race and there was no evidence or reporting to indicate the alleged incident was a hate crime.

If there had been an imminent threat or evidence of a hate crime, the campus community would have been alerted by text and email using HSU Alert, and information would have been prominently posted on the HSU homepage.

December 17th, 2020

Eureka Police Investigating Hate Crime After Gay Couple’s Christmas Decorations Were Vandalized

On Wednesday morning, Brian Kleinmeyer walked out to the front yard of the Myrtle Avenue home he shares with his boyfriend, Daniel Kain.

He noticed the gingerbread men in their elaborate Christmas yard display had been pulled from the ground and placed beneath their nearby pride flag. Closer inspection revealed that the handmade decorations had been smeared with feces.

“They literally ripped them out of the ground, and wiped their asses with them, and carefully laid them at the base of our Pride Flag,” Kleinmeyer wrote in a Facebook post.

“I thought things might get stolen, but never in a million years did I think this would happen. I’m completely in shock.”

The Eureka Police Department is now investigating the incident as a hate crime.

June 26th, 2021

SEVERAL ANTI-LGBTQ ACTS IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY HAVE SPARKED TWO COLORFUL RESPONSES–ONE YESTERDAY IN ARCATA AND ONE TODAY IN FERNDALE

“So this happened…A couple of hours ago I went out to get the mail and I found a wooden cross pounded into the ground on my property with a bible quote from Leviticus 20:13, ie: Death to homosexuals.

We have a pride flag on the front of our house, not easily visible from the road. The sheriff, our Dobermans and my neighbors are on alert.

Gotta love those bible totin’ christian haters…(emphasis on haters, obviously. I have plenty of friends and family who are good, caring, kind christians.)

July 10, 2021

3 hate crimes reported in Humboldt County last year – Incidents are often underreported, says local police chief

In November 2019, two Coast Guard members were leaving the Arcata Theater Lounge when a man began punching one of the Coast Guard members while shouting,

“that’s what you get for being a Mexican,”
according to the Arcata Police Department.
•••
A woman “screaming nonsensically” shouted a disparaging comment toward a woman using a walker as she walked down Eureka streets in July 2020, according to Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming.

The suspect threw the walker in the street and “then forced the victim against a fence and punched her,” Fleming said.
•••
In November 2020, two men drinking at the Arcata Plaza argued. After one of the men invited the other to sleep at his home, at some point, the two men agreed to fight each other and were loud enough for a third person to hear an agreement to “take it outside.”

During the fight, one of the men yelled anti-gay slurs and “I’m not down with that homo sh-t!” a lieutenant with Arcata Police told the Times-Standard.

July 10th, 2021

Hate crimes on the rise in Humboldt County in 2021 – Eureka Times-Standard

There were 1,763 of these events reported across the state in 2021, with hate crimes against Black people remaining the most prevalent though anti-Asian hate crimes saw an annual increase of 177.5%.

In Humboldt County, the eight incidents included 13 offenses against 12 victims. Two of those incidents were in Arcata, affecting three people; one was on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus, affecting three people; and five were in Eureka, affecting six people.

Hate crimes are different than hate incidents. Hate incidents can be hateful behaviors protected by the First Amendment, like name-calling and handing out hateful material in public places.
[In contrast,] hate crimes are behaviors that threaten a person or property.

November 1st, 2022

Hate crimes on the rise in Humboldt County in 2021 – Eureka Times-Standard

There were 1,763 of these events reported across the state in 2021, with hate crimes against Black people remaining the most prevalent though anti-Asian hate crimes saw an annual increase of 177.5%.

In Humboldt County, the eight incidents included 13 offenses against 12 victims. Two of those incidents were in Arcata, affecting three people; one was on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus, affecting three people; and five were in Eureka, affecting six people.

Hate crimes are different than hate incidents. Hate incidents can be hateful behaviors protected by the First Amendment, like name-calling and handing out hateful material in public places.
[In contrast,] hate crimes are behaviors that threaten a person or property.

July 14th, 2022

A Holiday Week Marred by Hate in Humboldt Law enforcement investigating separate incidents targeting Jewish, trans and Black people

The incidents include the assault of a Black man by multiple white men on Eureka’s waterfront after he reported being called a racial slur.

The widespread distribution of anti-Semitic flyers and a trans man reporting he was targeted, harassed and threatened in Fortuna, which are being investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies.

The incidents occurred a week after state Attorney General Rob Bonta released the 2021 Hate Crime in California Report, which showed a 33-percent increase in bias events over last year
— reaching levels not seen since the aftermath of 2001 terrorist attacks —

with Bonta describing the numbers as showing the “epidemic of hate we saw spurred on during the pandemic remains a clear and present threat.”

ALLEGED HATE EVENT IMAGE GALLERY

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

**The partial transcript of the Hate Event Video was created using AI and was not proofread for errors

Maybe you’ve seen some social media ruckus regarding pride in L GB TQ values, loco and redheaded black belt have stories on this in Ferndale, one church sign says, hurt by LGBTQ culture, healing here in Neeland, a symbol advocating for the death of the gay community, was placed in the property of two women flying a pride flag.

Of course, on the other side of this, there’s an outpouring of support and another church sign in Ferndale says, we welcome everyone. Jesus said, all are Site. Love is always the answer. See also a 2015 Italian study that suggests homophobic beliefs have a direct link to psychoticism, a personality trademarked by higher levels of hostility, anger and aggression towards others. And also, apparently, an inability to mind your own business.

The Eureka Police Department is trying to find out who vandalized a local gay couple’s holiday decorations, a hate crime, according to a post by Brian Clainmeyer, someone rubbed feces on decorative gingerbread men and laid them at the base of their pride flag. EPD reportedly has been serious in their condemning of this behavior, and they hope that people will come forward about it. Ryan told the outpost, quote, I’m not going to lie.

I didn’t cry over our decorations being vandalized, but I did Kindness we’ve been shown since it happened. I’m completely blown away. End quote. Thanks for letting me contribute to this great show. Without further delay, let’s dive in. Have you seen this news about hate crimes at Humboldt State last year?

It looks like while the university reported two hate crimes, the FBI tallied three. What’s that mean? Well, the data shows one incident was related to cultural background, another to religion, and the other to gender. On top of that, all the stuff about HCS police chief being investigated per se racist comments, among other things , adds up to trouble. Hey, agent, she was already dealing with low enroll enrollment.

And this can’t help. I’m waiting to see where this investigation goes from here. For now, it’s just another crappy roadblock to the success of an institution. Whether you like HSU or not, the campus makes a big impact on our local community. All I have to say is, I hope people learn to treat others with dignity and respect.

Is that really so hard? Let’s. Let’s get these hate crime numbers down to 0. It appeared to be a violent white supremacist group trying to recruit and humble Flyers were posted in Eureka, featuring the typical white pride BS1 poster with an assault rifle. The take group earned a small social media following recent video posted look like humble bay fireworks with the caption, the collapse will sound like the 4th of July every day for a while.

End quote. Officers were concerned, disgusted, investigating. And then turns out this group was started by a 16 year old boy whose multiracial what? DPD said, hey, we don’t think there’s a violent threat. This kid’s family basically dragged him by the ear to the police station upset and concerned. They’re reportedly going to try to set this kid on the right path with a local program. Officers are going to keep an eye on these hateful social media pages.

I followed that via kimchem.com and via the North Coast Journal. All right, let’s dive into the main story. The presidential election happened in Hobart County. More people voted for Hillary. She got 56% of the vote. Trump received 31% in Humboldt County. Protester happening nationwide. Do you know this?

He also happened in a few places in on Bolt County. So in the wake of all this, a nonprofit that helps local at risk children has been receiving hateful calls and messages because their founder attended the Anti Trump rally in Eureka.

Now I’m talking about wild souls ranch founders, Savannah Mccarty, according to their website, their program is not just limited to the art of writing courses, but it utilizes the task of caring for the horses and the bonds that form through this caring as a means to establish trust, respect and responsibility.

So what I wanted to talk to her about was how people are potentially turning their back on an organization that helps local kids all over. Ending what she said was a peaceful protest. Yeah, I don’t want to go into my political beliefs, but, you know, I definitely want to tell you something. I’ve had some of the best conversations of my life with people that politically disagree with. Yep, you know, just because someone voted for this person or that person, I’m not ignorant of the fact that they probably also enjoy a good laugh, you know, or a good needle, or a good goofy.

So, I mean, you exercised your First Amendment, right? You wrote that in your post. You know, you attended an anti trump rally in Old Town Eureka. After that, you know, you receive these negative comments. Can you tell me a little bit about the comments that you received?

We’ve been hurting this whole week. We work directly with children who will feel the effects of Trump as our president. I conducted wild soldier sessions the same as I always do all week after school. I mean, I could tell that these kids were also hurting. I never tell my kids my political views. They. Tell me how they feel about Trump.