Comments by Police Fueled Fears : San Diego department blew its initial handling of North Park-Hillcrest attacks

First the term wildings was used, violence for the sake of violence, a phenomenon so fear-invoking that vigilantism occurs to even rational people. Fueling the fear was the erroneous report that in just six months there had been 50 assaults, all but one by blacks on whites, in the relatively compact geographic area of North Park and Hillcrest.

And the reports had the imprimatur of the San Diego Police Department.

Images of hate crimes and a racist streak of violence stirred the communities’ collective fight-or-flight response. The police responded with a task force, giving the reports added credibility.

Add to that already volatile chemistry fears of gay bashing, spurred by the fact that some victims were homosexual and, then, the stabbing death of 17-year-old John Robert Wear, by attackers who called him a “faggot.�

It’s a wonder that community reaction was as focused and calm as it was. Citizen patrols were started, there were several angry community meetings and a march. Increased police presence helped reduce crime.

But little by little, as police looked closer, it turned out that this wasn’t a racist, gay-bashing series of “wildings.� Yes, there had been an exceptional number of particularly violent assaults, but not 50. More like 35. And they weren’t all black against white. Some of the attackers were white and some were gay.

Last week, the police said they can’t even say that there was a single “series� of crimes, in the sense of common assailants. There was no pattern except the extent of violence.

That does not make the assaults and robberies, and the killing of John Robert Wear, any less serious or worthy of police attention. And the police should be commended for responding quickly and working with the community. But the Police Department blew its initial handling of this situation. Such inflammatory misinformation stirs up the barely submerged racism that exists in any community. And San Diego has its share of racism, or maybe more than its share, as it found out when it tried to rename a street for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s a damage that’s hard to undo. For some people, the exaggerated early reports confirmed their worst fears. Little that is said afterward registers with the same emphasis.

Fortunately, such overstatement is rare for police, who usually are cautious about their public comments. How such an incomplete crime analysis slipped through the system is something Chief Bob Burgreen should make sure he thoroughly understands, so it doesn’t happen again.

These are violent enough times, and people have enough reasons for fear, without the police blowing crime out of proportion.