Protecting a diverse city from hate crimes a priority for Fresno mayor

As mayor of the country’s ninth-most diverse city and with more than four decades in its police force, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer is trying to live up to his campaign motto of “One Fresno.”

He has carried that motto into City Hall as a reminder that the city must be responsive to all residents, and that every voice should be heard.

“It is really important that we get along. That’s really the foundational principle behind the One Fresno philosophy,” said Dyer, who has evolved from dealing with hate crimes as a police chief/officer to preventing them as mayor.

“Regardless of the color of our skin, the neighborhood we live in, whether we have faith or don’t have faith, none of those should keep us from being able to unify on those things that are important to all of us,” he said.

During a recent interview with Vida en el Valle, Dyer described his experiences dealing with hate crimes as a police officer and chief in Fresno, as well as his work preventing them as mayor. He also reflected on one of his biggest tests as mayor, and what he’s learned since then.

Dyer had dealt with hate crimes as a police officer, including 20 years as chief. Since taking office in 2021, one of his biggest tests came when the LGBTQ+ community asked that the Pride flag be flown at City Hall that same year.

In 2021, members of the LGBTQ+ community asked that the Pride flag be flown at City Hall. Initially, he didn’t support the idea.

“My thought was that we were not going to raise the Pride flag. That was reserved for other types of events versus a cause,” Dyer, 64, told Vida en el Valle in an interview.

That changed when he attended a Pride flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City College in 2021 and listened to Carole Goldsmith, then college president and now chancellor of the State Center Community College District.

“She said she had been rejected in life by family over her coming out and stating she was gay,” said Dyer, 64.

“And I started hearing that from more and more people, even people that grew up in Christian homes who had been rejected because they were gay,” added Dyer. “And the last thing I want to do as mayor of this city is to cause people to feel rejected, or not part of a community to not have their voice heard by government.”

The Pride flag was raised at City Hall for the first time in 2021.

At the Pride flag-raising ceremony last month, Dyer spoke about his vision of leading a diverse city that has a Latino majority but also large numbers of Asians, Armenians, Blacks and Sikhs.

“We have a vision in our city and it starts with the word ‘inclusive.’ And we also have a motto that says ‘One Fresno,’” he said. “Easy to say, hard to live.

“Until we as a people start looking at each other for our hearts and until we start looking at each other as human beings, I think we’re always going to have people in this world that hate and judge because of that lack of understanding and unwillingness to get to know each other.”

Dyer responds to hate crime data

The interview with the mayor came two weeks after state Attorney General Rob Bonta released the 2022 hate crime report that showed a sharp spike in hate incidents against LGBTQ+ residents, along with Blacks and Jews.

A hate crime is one that targets a person for his or her gender, race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, nationality or association with a person or group with one of these characteristics.

A hate crime event meets the criteria for a hate crime and has been documented by law enforcement.

An offense is a criminal act that can range from murder, rape and robbery to simple assault, fondling and intimidation.

A hate incident can be name-calling, insults, a display of hate materials, or distribution of hate materials in public.

The data shows a slight decrease in hate crime events, with 13 reported by Fresno police in 2022 compared with 15 in 2021, but an increase in offenses from 19 to 26. Officials say the number of reported hate crimes can be deceiving because most of those incidents are not reported out of fear, language barriers or not trusting law enforcement.

“Unfortunately, we live in a day where it’s very common for people to resort to social media and to have their voices heard on issues,” said Dyer. “And sometimes those are extreme voices and oftentimes filled with hate.

“Sometimes those voices can fuel other people and maybe cause things to occur that normally wouldn’t happen.”

Dyer was mayor when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a spike in hate crime against the Asian community, which was blamed for the pandemic. He was police chief when the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 saw Sikhs attacked because they were mistakenly identified as Arabs.

He established the Office of Community Affairs with liaisons reaching out to the Latino, Black, Asian and Sikh communities. A liaison to the LGBTQ+ community will be filled in September, said Dyer.

Councilmember Nelson Esparza introduced a resolution three years ago addressing the hate crimes against the Asian community, but Dyer figured an office of liaisons would be a better response.

The city has previously had an ombudsman and a Human Relations Commission, not at the same time, that addressed issues like hate speech.

“I didn’t feel that it was enough just to have an Asian representation because our largest population is Latino. We should have a liaison there,” said Dyer. “The same with our Indian population.”

The mayor added liaisons for other communities he felt needed to be heard.

“I know from my time in the police department that although periodically each race might become a victim of a hate crime, consistently what we’ve seen over the years is that it’s members of the LGBTQ community that have been victims of hate crimes,” said Dyer. “We know that happens all the time.”

Dyer said his active presence throughout the city, coupled with the community liaisons, gives him an indicator of issues that can be handled before they get out of hand.

Police take hate crimes seriously

Fresno police have had a long-time policy that hate crime reports are automatically elevated to the district captain level.

“Every hate crime is reviewed by a captain immediately,” said Dyer. “I want the community to know if they have been the victim of a hate crime is to report that to the police department and trust that it will be taken seriously and it will be investigated. People that are found responsible will be held accountable.”

Hate crimes, he said, often push communities further into the shadows.

“We know that with our immigrant populations, they seldom come forth with issues or concerns,” he said. “I found in the police department that when they were victims of crime, they didn’t report them for fear of deportation.”

The Office of Community Affairs, said Dyer, is designed to “give everyone a voice, and to get people away from their shadow and be part of our system of government. We want everybody to have a voice.”

This is part of a series on Stop The Hate, a project funded by the California State Library.

This story was originally published July 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Protecting a diverse city from hate crimes a priority for Fresno mayor."