By Neal Putnam
Hate crimes up in San Diego
Hate crimes rose by 73% in 2023 over 2022, according to the San Diego Police Chief’s yearly crime statistics report, which will be discussed in April by the full San Diego City Council.
The report was released March 26 by Police Chief David Nisleit, who held a press conference with Mayor Todd Gloria to announce that most crimes actually went down by 3% overall.
There were 66 hate crimes in 2023, for which sexual orientation was believed a factor in 21 incidents or 32% in 2023, the report said. Race/Ethnicity was a factor in 25 incidents, or 38%, and religion was cited in 27% in 18 incidents, according to the report.
Mayor Gloria said the increase in hate crimes may be a result of more people reporting such crimes. The bias cited in hate crimes involving religion were crimes that took place against Jewish or Middle Eastern people, which may be influenced as a result of the Israel/Hamas war.
In 2022, there were only four incidents of hate crimes that occurred due to sexual orientation, the report said. Animal cruelty cases increased by 500% in 2023, a result of 24 cases as opposed to four incidents in 2022.
Food Truck Fire update
A prison sentence of five years and four months was handed down March 20, for Avonte Ahikim Hartsfield, a gay man who was convicted of arson and two counts of insurance fraud after torching his own vegan food truck.
A restitution hearing was set for April 22, to determine how much Hartsfield, 27, will have to pay donors who contributed more than $102,000 to a GoFundMe campaign when Hartsfield originally claimed he was the victim of a hate crime because he was black and also gay.
“The defendant preyed on the San Diego community on the trust, on the good natured spirit and the good hearts that our community has,” said Deputy District Attorney Judy Taschner afterwards.
“The jury has spoken that he was guilty on all four charges of arson, two counts of insurance fraud and grand theft from GoFundMe,” DDA Taschner said. “He’s not taking any responsibility for any of his actions in this case.”
Hartsfield, who won the right to represent himself, told San Diego Superior Court Judge Kimberlee Lagotta that the prosecutor wasn’t able to prove he started the fire. He claimed he was at home at the time of the Oct. 3, 2021, blaze in Kearny Mesa.
Taschner played recordings at trial that showed Hartsfield saying he panicked when a rice cooker sparked and that the fire was accidental. He told a detective he fled the scene as he feared he would be electrocuted.
–Neal Putnam is a local crime reporter. You can reach him at nealputnam@gmail.com.
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