Source: The Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news, October 17th 2000

Now Here's a Chance to Raise the Hate Crimes Card

By PATT MORRISON

Coming soon to a police cruiser near you: the hate crimes card.

The Anti-Defamation League has drafted a nifty laminated card--bigger than the Miranda model, but just the right size to slip into a field notebook or clip to the visor of a patrol car--to help officers handle hate crimes.

Several hundred were given to the badge-and-uniform set at a hate crime conference in Sacramento recently, and by month's end, cards will be in the mail to law enforcement in all 50 states.

The card was field-tested in California by the Los Angeles school police and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, which had something to say about everything from the card size to the typeface.

It bears 11 strategies ("Allow victim to use own words. Use interpreter, if necessary.") and seven factors to watch, like telltale signs of a hate crime, and whether the crime took place on an ethnic or political red-letter day--like Cinco de Mayo, or Hitler's birthday.