The following is a letter from LAPD West Los Angeles Captain Jonathan Tom on hate crimes targeting the Jewish community.
To the West Los Angeles community,
I am reaching out to you as the Commanding Officer of West Los Angeles Area, which covers many of the diverse communities and neighborhoods on the Westside of Los Angeles. At the moment, I also have the honor of being the Acting Assistant Commanding Officer of Operations West Bureau (OWB), which oversees West Los Angeles, Hollywood, Olympic, Pacific and Wilshire Areas. In my capacity at OWB, I was notified regarding the vicious assault that took place on La Cienega in Wilshire Area. Wilshire Area Commanding Officer, Captain Shannon Paulson and her team have been working around the clock to follow up on leads and develop strategies to not only capture those responsible, but to mitigate future violence.
As the Captain at West Los Angeles Area, I have been fortunate to work with many of our community partners. Today, I would like to thank all of them for their continued collaboration with the LAPD. We have worked side by side to identify and address problems in order to increase the overall safety of the community. As a police department, our highest priority is ensuring the safety and security of all Angelenos and we can only do that when we work hand in hand with our diverse communities.
Tensions are extremely high around the world and many in the Jewish community are concerned that violence will spill over into local neighborhoods in Los Angeles. I want to reassure you that we are working diligently and expending significant resources to mitigate violence and investigate Hate crimes. With that, I want to share five important points that I feel are necessary for our community members to hear directly from me as the Captain for West Los Angeles Area as well as the Acting Commander of OWB.
We are aware of the recent extremely concerning hate crimes, including the events that occurred on La Brea and La Cienega Boulevards in Wilshire Division. Those crimes are currently being investigated by Wilshire Area Detectives with support from OWB. The detectives have been coordinating with law enforcement from local, state and federal agencies and they have made an arrest related to the Hate Crime that occurred on La Cienega Boulevard. The investigation continues and I can assure you that they will exhaustively follow all leads. I want to assure the community that the LAPD has no tolerance for hateful acts committed against members of the Jewish Community or any community for that matter. If you feel you are the victim of a hate crime or hate incident, please report it immediately via our non-emergency line: (877) ASK LAPD or emergency line: 911.
2. We have increased our high visibility patrols and even brought in our Mounted Unit in and around Jewish neighborhoods, businesses, and places of worship. We recognize the importance of showing a clear police presence to not only deter crime, but to show the community that the police department is front and center in securing our communities.
The LAPD is asking for a call for peace. We staunchly support the community’s right to exercise their constitutional rights of freedom of assembly and speech. At the same time, there is no place in Los Angeles for hateful rhetoric, disrespect and especially not violence. We encourage all community members to respect the rule of law. We ask that all Angelenos ensure that even when disagreements occur, they occur peacefully so that we can continue to do our job to protect and serve you, the members of our community.
We are on the eve of the anniversary of the George Floyd incident and want to reassure you that the LAPD is expending significant thought and effort to ensure that all of our communities are safe. We are not aware of any impending unrest or other riotous activity planned for tomorrow. We will be highly visible tomorrow and assessing the situation throughout the day and week and make appropriate adjustments to our patrols as necessary.
5. “We have nothing to fear except fear itself” is an old adage that was popularized in America by Franklin D. Roosevelt. While of course the saying cannot be taken literally it is meant to indicate that the “fear” of something can sometimes cause greater damage than the thing that we are concerned about. When fear takes over our lives, we jump at shadows and can overreact to situations. While fear is a useful emotion, unhealthy amounts of it can cause us not to take a step back and see things for what they are. Do not let fear become your overriding emotion. Go on with your daily lives, but pay attention to your surroundings and be more vigilant than ever.
We encourage the community to continue to strengthen the partnership that LAPD has felt for so many years. Please feel free to reach out to your local LAPD representatives, i.e.: the officers patrolling your neighborhoods, your Senior Lead Officers and myself to ensure that the lines of communication stay open.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Tom
