Are Pleasanton and Livermore more crime-ridden than Oakland? According to just-released statistics from the FBI, the two cities were in 2005 in terms of hate-motivated crime.

The 2005 nationwide study included many — but not all — U.S. law enforcement agencies. It compared several types of hate crime, motivated by race, sexual orientation, national origin, disability and religion.

Last year, Livermore police had two race crimes and two religion crimes. Pleasanton police had two race crimes and one crime aimed at the victims

national origin.

Oakland reported one race crime and two sexual orientation crimes.

Still, local officials say that hate crime is not a trend on the rise in the Valley.

Every year, youre going to have a couple, Pleasanton police Sgt. Craig Eicher said. It can be a comment about someones cultural upbringing. It doesnt take a lot to create that classification.

Jack Glaser, a hate crime specialist and assistant professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, said there are three ways to look at the statistics — and all three point to the volatile climate in Oakland.

In the first possibility, there are relatively few hate crimes in Oakland because of the segregation ... 85 percent of the hills are white, and 85 percent of the flats are black, he said.

In that scenario, whites and blacks dont interact enough to foster excessive hate crimes.

White on black hate crime

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isnationally more common than black on white hate crime, Glaser said.

Because Oakland has a high black population, there is less room for racist whites.

So theres less opportunity for hate crime, he said.

In another scenario, Oaklands high crime rate prevents police from having enough time to follow up on minor hate crime reports.

The OPD officers could have their hands full, Glaser said.

Eicher said that the worst hate crime in Pleasanton was the battery of a Latino recycler who mistakenly took someone elses property.

The property owners told the (victim) to go back to Mexico, and then assaulted him, Eicher said. Another incident occurred when someone spray-painted hate words and swastikas on buildings at Foothill High School.

Livermore Police Lt. Scott Trudeau said all four hate crimes reported in his city were nonviolent and involved some type of vandalism. Three were race-related, he said, and one was against an official of a Catholic church. It was not clear if the offender knew this, Trudeau said.

Its up to the individual officer to categorize the incident as they see it, he said.

Hate crimes dont always equate to violent crimes, Glaser said.

Crimes with a sexual orientation bias are usually the most violent, because the offender doesnt care about changing a person but wants to punish him.

Crimes with a race bias can be violent, but are usually property crimes meant to send a message, he said. An example can be a cross-burning. Crimes with a religious bias are rarely violent and usually involve vandalism such as graffiti or a rock thrown through a window of a place of worship, he said.

Nationwide, according to the FBI study, 54.7 percent of hate crimes were motivated by a racial bias, 17.1 percent were triggered by a religious bias, 14.2 percent were motivated by a sexual-orientation bias, and

13.2 percent of the incidents were motivated by a national origin bias. About 1 percent involved bias against a disability.

In the East Bay, race played an even bigger factor accounting for 62 percent of all hate crimes. Sexual orientation was second with 20.7 percent, religion was third with 10.3 percent, national origin was a bias in 6.9 percent of all hate crimes and there were no disability crimes.

In San Francisco, however, crimes against homosexuals were the leading type of hate crime. The city had more hate crimes reported than all of the East Bay combined. San Francisco police reported 47 sexual orientation crimes, 34 race hate crimes, 12 national origin crimes, 10 religion hate crimes and one disability hate crime.

Glaser said the reason San Francisco had such a large number of sexual orientation crimes was because there is a higher concentration of homosexuals living there.

It has a lot more potential hate crime victims, he said.

Roman Gokhman can be reached at (925) 416-4849 or at rgokhman@trivalleyherald.com.