California city leaders call out anti-Semitism during town hall
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CNN, KYMA/KECY) - City leaders in Los Angeles are sounding the alarm about anti-Semitism.
The L.A. mayor, police chief, and L.A. County sheriff came together to underscore the seriousness of the issue.
"The horror we are experiencing is real," said Rabbi Noah Farkas, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation.
Farkas is sounding the alarm after a series of crimes targeting Jewish people.
"This is where I grew up"
On Monday, Jewish community leaders gathered L.A.'s most powerful officials for a town hall on how to combat hate.
L.A.'s Police Chief Michel Moore, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna, and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass made a joint appearance.
"I don't just look at this community as a Jewish community; this is my community. This is right where I grew up," Mayor Bass spoke.
The town hall occurred in the Pico Robertson neighborhood, just blocks away from the scene of two shootings last week.
Both victims were Jewish; one is seen in a security video, tending to his arm where he was shot. The other victim also survived.
Authorities arrested the shooter and is facing hate crime charges.
"Thursday night, my conversation with the U.S. attorney was his forceful statement that he would filing federal hate charges Friday in an aggressive pursuit of justice," Moore spoke.
Keeping communities safe
Mayor Bass said one of her goals is to hire more police officers in order to help keep communities safe.
"One of the things that certainly needs to happen in LAPD - which we all agree to is LAPD is down in its numbers. We need to increase in the numbers," Bass further spoke.
The shootings last week follow a series of other recent incidents, including anti-Semitic flyers being put out and a banner of hate unfurled on an overpass along the 405 last October; a group of people echoed a rhetoric spread by Kanye West to his millions of followers on social media.
"First we had a shooting, then a second. We have no way of knowing if its going to stop. I actually look at it like it's been an escalation that started with flyers over the weekend, banners and now a shooting," Bass exclaimed.
Not giving up
Officials also pointed out the numbers of hate crimes across the board may be worse than we know.
"As bad and scary the statistics are about hate crimes, hate crimes are dramatically under reported. That is the truth and anyone who is paying attention to this will tell you that - we are facing much more hate - even that the statistics tell us we are," said Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel.
Jewish leaders at the meeting said they were afraid to take their children to school or synagogue, wearing things that could identify them as Jewish.
However, they say they're not going to live in fear and they're not giving up.