St. Petersburg listed as No. 1 in hate (with six-hour period of black on white violence)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | December 29, 2005 | Jamie Thompson

[Cincinatus' Wife]

ST. PETERSBURG - A six-hour period of black on white violence 19 months ago has earned St. Petersburg an unflattering distinction in a new state report: the city with the most hate crimes in 2004.

Police Chief Chuck Harmon cut short his holiday vacation to hold a news conference about the numbers, contained in an annual report by Attorney General Charlie Crist. The figures were an aberration, Harmon said, largely the result of one evening of civil unrest on May 12, in which a group of about 125 people, mostly black, threw bricks and bottles at drivers, mostly white. One man's face was beaten so badly that he needed reconstructive surgery.

Harmon noted that the disturbance accounted for 29 of the city's 49 reported hate crime victims. Without those, the number would have been 20, similar to the previous year. In 2005, police said, the number of reported hate crime victims in St. Petersburg has fallen to 13.

The high number of reported hate crimes in St. Petersburg meant that in 2004 Pinellas County topped the state, with 63 victims of hate in all. In comparison, Hillsborough County had 27, fourth in the state. Pasco and Hernando counties each reported six victims. Citrus reported none.

Throughout the report, the attorney general's staff cautioned against making overbroad generalizations about any area. Some agencies, they noted, report hate crimes far more vigorously than others. Municipal police departments in Miami, Tallahassee, Sarasota, Daytona Beach, Fort Myers, Ocala and West Palm Beach didn't have any hate crimes to report in 2004.

Of the 20 arrests made in the wake of the St. Petersburg disturbance May 12 and May 13, none was classified as a hate crime, police said. Most of those arrests were burglaries, drug charges and attempted homicide of police officers.

But police did mark as hate crimes 19 incidents - 17 reports of people throwing objects at cars, one aggravated battery and one burglary/battery. In those, nearly all the suspects were black, and all of the 29 victims except one were white. No one was arrested in those incidents, but police still classified them as hate crimes.

"We felt that, through investigating that night, they were motivated by race," Harmon said.

The disturbance came two weeks after a black teenager was shot and killed by two sheriff's deputies, and in the midst of a wrongful death trial involving another black teen who was fatally shot by police in 1996.

Harmon and others said race relations have improved in the city since that turbulent evening in 2004.

"We've grown as a community," Harmon said. "We've put that behind us."

However, others say the city is perpetually on the edge of another civil disturbance.

"When something goes wrong, we try to patch it up, then we go back to business as usual," said the Rev. Louis Murphy of Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. "We should be dealing with it in a time of peace."

Statewide, the number of reported hate crimes rose by 21.5 percent in 2004, the third-highest annual number since reporting began in 1990. The total, 334, was only one shy of 2001, when police believe anger over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to a spike. The majority of crimes were fueled by race, followed by sexual orientation, ethnicity and religion.

"We'd certainly rather the numbers be down instead of up," Crist said, adding that he believed the increase was a result of better reporting.

"On first blush, the numbers are pretty disturbing," police Chief Harmon said. But behind them is a small group of people who were determined to cause trouble in Midtown on May 12, he said.

The violence started shortly after 9 p.m., when members of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement staged a protest in front of their headquarters at 1245 18th Ave. S. On their minds: the May 2 fatal shooting of Marquell McCullough, a black teen who was shot by two sheriff's deputies who said he was driving toward them in a pickup truck.

For the Uhurus, the case resembled that of TyRon Lewis, an 18-year-old black man who was fatally shot by a white St. Petersburg police officer during a traffic stop in 1996, sparking two nights of violence. A trial was under way in a lawsuit Lewis' mother filed against the city in the death of her son when the disturbance started.

Groups of black residents, many of them teens, hurled bottles, bricks and concrete blocks at passing cars, damaging at least 60 vehicles, police said. Some people fired shots at police officers. At least 16 people were treated at hospitals.

Some community leaders said the report is not a reliable barometer of race relations in St. Petersburg. "There are a lot of comfortably integrated neighborhoods," said Karl Nurse, president of the Council of Neighborhood Associations, which represents 73 city neighborhoods.

In part, he blames the Uhurus for giving the city a bad name.

"I don't think it's very much about race, I just think it's about punks," Nurse said. "To me, the Uhurus is a hate group."

Chimurenga Waller, leader of the group in St. Petersburg, has said the Uhurus did not start the disturbance on May 12. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

To the Rev. Murphy, the issue is more about economics than race.

"There is a very small minority of whites who don't like blacks because they're black, and a very small minority of blacks who don't like whites because they're white," he said. "The real issue is the disparities."

Despite recent public and private investment in Midtown, black residents get frustrated by the lack of economic opportunities and a less satisfying experience in public schools, Murphy said.

"A lot of the things that we're experiencing today can be traced back to slavery, segregation, oppression," he said.

Part of the answer, he believes, is to talk about race and equality all the time, not just after violence.

Race historically has been the dominant factor in hate crimes. However, religion and ethnicity trumped race in 2001, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now, the proportions are back to pre-9/11 rates.

Jamie Thompson can be reached at 727 893-8455 or jthompson@sptimes.com

[308MBR]

That G3 kicks like a mule compared to the other two. The FAL is my favorite, but I'm limping along with the M1A.

[Centurion2000]

LOL ... I thought they were referring to St Petersburg Russia and thinking, My God, the Russians would stomp black FLAT if they did this.

[Chanticleer]

I apologize. Really need to make that appointment with the eye doctor. :-)

After what the Governor of Maryland has been going through, the Oreo factor is probably quite high.

[FreedomPoster]

No problem. And it's really long past time for us all (as a society) to quit kowtowing to those elements.