This is a background piece on the meaning of a "hate crime" in the five-part series published by our public media partners at Fronteras.

Defining Hate Crimes

By Jude Joffe-Block [1]

PHOENIX — This week we launch our five-part Fronteras Desk series, The Search For Tolerance [2]. Five reporters in five cities checked on the ways that communities are trying to prevent hate crimes. The stories air on several public radio stations in the Southwest this week.

But as communities work to prevent hate, a question often arises when some form of harassment or discrimination does occur: Was that a hate crime?

During the last few decades, the vast majority of states have added hate crime laws to their books. These statutes allow longer criminal sentences if there is evidence that a crime was motivated by bias.

At a recent town meeting in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert [3], concerned residents and the police chief entered into a dialogue about the legal definition of a hate crime.

By Jude Joffe-Block [1] On July 14 about 50 people rallied in Gilbert, Ariz. in support of a same-sex couple who have been harassed in their home. Whether or not the harassment should be considered a hate crime has been a topic of discussion in the community.

Their discussion focused on the case of Felix Bermea and Roy Messerschmidt, a same-sex couple who recently moved their four foster children to a home in Gilbert, where they say they have been been harassed for the past several months. The couple has reported a break in, a phallic drawing outside their home, repeated knocking on their front door, and a fire set to the bushes on their property line.

"While legally this is not considered a hate crime, in my opinion and in the opinion of a lot of the gay community, it is a hate crime," said concerned citizen Forrest Kruger at a community meeting on July 11. Kruger was one of several people who had heard of the Bermea-Messerschmidt family's situation and felt the Gilbert police were not taking the harassment seriously enough. "These people are being targeted, and they have been terrorized for months now, when does it stop?"

So far, both the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League [4] and the Gilbert Police Department [5] have said there is not enough information to classify the incident as a hate crime, since the perpetrators haven't been caught, and their intent is still unknown.

"I believe that they believe that they are being targeted because of their sexual orientation," Gilbert Police Chief Tim Dorn [6] responded during the meeting. "If I was in their shoes i would probably think that I was being targeted, too."

The Search For Tolerance [2] Fronteras: The Changing America Desk has joined forces with Not in Our Town documentary producers to determine how hate affects communities throughout the Southwest and what people are doing about it.