Two local leaders — Glendale Police Chief Manny Cid and Glendale Community College President and Superintendent Ryan Cornner — recently supported “Stand TAAL to Hate,” a campaign started by the Truth and Accountability League and Los Angeles County’s Commission on Human Relations, as well as its LA vs. Hate campaign team.
Cid and Cornner both shared anti-bigotry public service announcements, which are intended to educate residents about hate crimes and how to report them, along with comedian Margaret Cho, businessman Rick Caruso and Mark Geragos, a criminal defense attorney.
Cid spoke of the importance of taking a stand against hate through community partnerships, calling them “an essential part of protecting Glendale.”
“This campaign represents a valuable partnership between the community and law enforcement, enabling the Glendale Police Department to take proactive steps toward deterring hate acts and crimes and swiftly and justly addressing them when they happen,” Cid told the News-Press.
Cornner emphasized GCC’s commitment to upholding policies barring individuals from engaging in harassing or discriminatory behaviors in a statement to the News-Press, as well as the college’s “ongoing work on building belonging on campus and supporting cultural awareness.”
“It is important to make clear that hate is unacceptable in any community and that there are ways to combat hate, including reporting incidents,” Cornner said. “The campaign provides information on what to do if you are a victim of, or a witness to, any act of hate. In doing so, we make a statement that we should be coming together to celebrate our communities and not have to endure incidents of hate.”
Reporting incidents of hate is critical to not only ensuring that perpetrators are punished, but also providing victims with the resources they need to heal, Cid said, adding that reporting is also important for tracking the prevalence of these incidents in the community.
“Public denunciation of hate reminds our community that hate has no place in Glendale,” Cid said. “As police chief, I want to assure residents that the Glendale Police Department takes hate crimes and hate incidents very seriously.”
Vic Gerami, TAAL’s founder and chair, contexualized this PSA campaign.
“In the face of rapidly rising bigotry, discrimination and hate incidents, our latest PSA campaign is a crucial step in the right direction,” he said.
Gerami also thanked the five participants who contributed to the campaign.
“Their commitment to combat hate and foster unity through diversity is the driving force behind TAAL,” Gerami said in a statement. “We are honored to be in partnership with the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations and LA vs. Hate.”
The county Commission on Human Relations’ LA vs. Hate campaign “aims to address the normalization of hate and inspire people to stand up to it, build understanding about what constitutes a hate act and how to report it, as well as support individuals and communities as they heal from the trauma of hate,” according to the campaign’s website.
TAAL has a history of working with the Commission on Human Relations and LA vs. Hate, including putting on a town hall to address the rise in anti-Armenian hate crimes in L.A. County, creating an “Armenians Against Hate” poster and putting together PSAs featuring Armenians who were victims of hate-related incidents.
— City News Service contributed to this report.
