NEW ANTI-HATE LAWS INTRODUCED SCHOOLS PRESSED TO ADDRESS TOLERANCE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Sparked by the Jewish Community Center shooting, Gov. Gray Davis proposed a series of tough anti-hate laws Monday and urged schools to adopt anti-hate curriculums.

Davis, speaking at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, said the legislation, which he expects to receive bipartisan support, would give California the toughest hate-crime laws in the nation.

The legislation would add three years to any prison sentence for a felony hate crime, and extend the statute of limitations for filing hate crime charges to three years from one year.

Davis focused his legislation on so-called hate groups, proposing to expand their definition to include two or more people who associate for the purpose of committing hate crimes.

``Hate groups strike at the very heart of what it means to be an American, and we are obligated to fight back,'' Davis said. ``We are the most diverse people on the planet Earth. That was God's plan. We need to start living like that.''

The legislation is drawn from a blue-ribbon panel Davis appointed, shortly after a white supremacist was accused of wounding five people at a North Valley Jewish Community Center and the fatal shooting of a postal carrier in August 1999.

In its 66-page report, the panel co-chaired by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and former California Gov. George Deukmejian, found that a rise in hate crimes is fueled by California's rapid growth and increasingly diverse population.

In 1998, more than 1,800 hate crimes were reported in the state involving 1,985 suspects and 2,136 victims, 70 percent of which involved violent crimes. In the San Fernando Valley, hate crimes rose by 22 percent from 1998 to 1999, rising from 169 to 206.

Although many of the crimes appeared to be the work of people acting on their own, the influence of hate groups frequently was found in their backgrounds, the report found.

The report identified 36 hate groups in California, including the Nazi Low Riders in the San Fernando and Antelope valleys, the Peckerwoods in Chatsworth and the Antelope Valley, the Aryan International Movement in Los Angeles and the World Church of the Creator in Monrovia and Redondo Beach.

``My experience is 70 percent of hate crimes we investigate are committed by thrill-seeking individuals who don't have a commitment to hate ideology,'' said Deputy District Attorney Carla Arranaga, who leads the office's hate crime suppression unit.

The government estimates there are more than 60 paramilitary-type organizations in the state, including militia, ``patriot'' and anti-government groups.

Davis' legislation would make the violation of anti-paramilitary laws a felony rather than a misdemeanor. Currently, it's a misdemeanor for paramilitary groups to meet for the purposes of practicing with weapons.

Also, paramilitary group members who teach or demonstrate firearms- and explosives-related activities can also be charged with misdemeanors. The new law would make them felonies.

The legislation would simplify the removal of false liens by perpetrators of ``paper terrorism,'' a technique hate groups use to harass by filing legal or pseudo-legal documents.

``We think these recommendations are a good beginning in addressing hate groups and we ask everyone to help us in what we hope will launch an all-out, overall attack on the problem of hate groups,'' Christopher said.

Davis' legislation calls for the creation of a human relations curriculum in schools to teach tolerance and constructive ways to resolve conflicts. He also wants to promote better training for teachers about tolerance and hate-motivated behavior.

``The instruction of young people is absolutely essential for youth to have greater tolerance for one another,'' Deukmejian said.