This letter is a rebuttal to the letter dated Dec. 19, “Anti-Black Hate Rising,” by Valerie Bradford, president of the Santa Clarita Valley chapter of the NAACP.
Ms. Bradford uses an awfully broad brush in her letter to offend and paint all the residents of SCV as racists, all the while using plenty of deception, vagueness and ambiguities. Let’s set aside the fact that the term “Anti-Black Hate Crime” is a double negative and concentrate on her claims. Who are the 9,000 residents she refers to in the beginning of her letter? SCV residents? We have over 200,000. L.A. County residents? Over 11 million. She claims hate crimes against Blacks in Santa Clarita in a single year have jumped 36%. How about raw numbers, not percentages. One hate crime in 2021 and two in 2022 would give us a 100% increase, yet hardly prove hate crimes are rampant in SCV.
She cites two examples of what she deemed to be “disturbing incidents” that prompted the formation of the SCV NAACP, both of which were not crimes. She rambles on with condescending language about how the referenced report’s numbers don’t “shock” SCV residents. Awfully big assumption, Ms. Bradford.
She chooses her words carefully as she is doing her best to obfuscate her blatant fact-omitting, rather than get to the substance. She claims over the past 34 months they (SCV NAACP) have received 30 “incident reports” — not actual crime reports to law enforcement — of racist behavior, racial harassment, hate speech, and other threatening, intimidating and immoral acts, none of which are crimes, or she would have referred to them as such.
She claims, “This a Santa Clarita problem,” and demands the city do something about it. She goes on to say, “Santa Clarita cannot ignore the fact that Black residents were the targets of 42% of reported hate crimes in 2022.” This line is particularly deceptive and problematic. Who says anybody is ignoring anything? The 42% of residents she references are residents of where? SCV or Los Angeles County? Lastly and most importantly, she says “targets,” not victims, and uses the language of “reported hate crimes,” not actual hate crimes. According to FBI statistics, 95% of “reported” hate crimes end up not being hate crimes at all.
Is this what SCV wants from the NAACP? Divisive, accusatory, racist rhetoric painting our beloved community as a bunch of racist rednecks?
Derek Vineyard
Canyon Country
