Hillcrest funds volunteerism with restitution from prosecution over hateful graffiti

San Diego Police Department Captain Matt Dobbs addresses a press conference in Hillcrest about hate crime vandalism on Thursday June Behind him stand l to r Deputy District Attorney Abigail Dillon District Attorney Summer Stephan and Hillcrest Business Association Executive Director Ben Nicholls obscured Photo by Drew Sitton Times of San Diego HILLCREST This day we re going to tell you the good end of the terrible story reported District Attorney Summer Stephan The tale began with a hate crime Last summer trash cans with Welcome to Hillcrest signs three painted utility boxes two businesses exterior walls and a mural in mural alley were defaced with swastikas and anti-gay slurs Stephan condemned the situation as not just property damage but one that spread shame fear and disrespect through an entire public It s something that lingers in the back of your head that you re not even safe at home reported Patric Stillman who owns art gallery Studio Door along mural alley Months later Stephan was back in the historic LGBTQ neighborhood to announce that in a plea deal for the misdemeanor hate crime vandalism charge the perpetrators paid towards a restitution fund The individuals were also ordered to complete LGBTQ coaching classes and forbidden from entering the area They remain on probation This was the just effect and a product that was also balanced by the idea of their youth and the promising ability to rehabilitate them and have them be members of the population that do not hate disclosed Stephan at Thursday s news conference held at University and Fifth avenues The event served as a preview of the new neighborhood restoration fund for Hillcrest The Hillcrest Business Association will use the funds to patronage volunteer efforts to clean up the neighborhood including this Saturday s quarterly Hillcrest Cleanup Cocktails event at a m which already has people signed up The fund can cover expenses like trash bags and gloves Last year s event in August is when we discovered specific of those hate symbols that are being mentioned and I was so proud to our group that they decided to stand up They took pictures We published it with our LGBT liaisons and they scrubbed the hell out of those hate signs because hate does not belong in Hillcrest explained Rick Cervantes who co-leads the Cleanup Cocktails event In August the graffiti was in place for less than hours as helpers mobilized to scrub away the shoe polish spread throughout the neighborhood Painters were hired to fix the murals This society has certainly been under attack in a big picture way But as this occurrence shows in a small picture graffiti tags and pellet guns and all sorts of things like that have really brought us a level of fear reported Hillcrest Business Association Executive Director Ben Nicholls also referring to the pellet gun shootings that took place last fall The way that the society responds to that is by showing up participating getting involved he revealed Strength and resilience despite graffiti As a former Hillcrest resident Deputy DA Abigail Dillon disclosed the quick response from the region to the event evidenced its strength and resilience I can t emphasize enough what a testament it is to the population that so a multitude of people came out and made sure that attention was brought to this So a multitude of of these crimes just go unreported and if they go unreported they never reach our office for prosecution Dillon led the prosecution and worked alongside San Diego Police Department in the analysis As the head of the DA s hate crimes division she noted saw an increase in hate crimes against the LGBTQ district They tied for the first time she can remember with race-motivated hate crimes The DA does not track hate crimes by neighborhood but Hillcrest saw at least a handful of anti-LGBTQ hate incidents in In addition to the graffiti and drive-by pellet shootings of pedestrians a workable bullet hit the window of a nonprofit serving transgender immigrants Capt Matt Dobbs who commands the SDPD s Western Division mentioned the individuals responsible for the graffiti would not have been detected without smart street light cameras and license plate readers installed in the neighborhood following other hate incidents I know that chosen latest events in the nation and particular rhetoric have left specific in the society feeling erased and disenfranchised reported Dobbs I want them to know that the San Diego Police Department sees them We hear them but the majority importantly we are here for them