The Santa Monica Police Department drew criticism last month for failing to probe an incident, in which what was said to be a Jewish couple was chased in Santa Monica, Calif., and called “genocidal.” And the police chief said earlier this month that he is aware that not everyone would be satisfied by the department’s understanding that the victims weren’t targeted as Jews.
JNS has learned that the two victims did not identify themselves as Jews to responding officers or to detectives.
After news reports described the incident as a possible hate crime, detectives interviewed the victims again, according to a source with knowledge.
“The detectives then did subsequent follow-up with the victims, who again denied being Jewish, but said that they were considering either converting or that they felt part of the Jewish community because of their close associations with the community,” the source said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Nay Min Tar, 49, of Illinois, with a felony count of criminal threats and a misdemeanor count of battery. Prosecutors allege that Tar threatened to kill a victim and directed his dog to attack him.
Earlier on May 24, police received reports that Tar was “yelling and screaming derogatory terms and obscenities at lots of different people in public,” the source said.
“He was using a lot of the same language, calling people ‘genocidal’ or ‘genociders,’ things like that, as broad terms but not picking people out because he believed or perceived to believe them as being Jewish or part of a protected class,” according to the source.
“In those earlier calls, there was no threat associated, like an actionable, criminal threat, like an assault, a battery, things of that nature,” the source told JNS.
The source added that the suspect “suffers from prior mental health issues” and detectives believe he “fixated” on the two victims, because they had filmed him.
Subsequent interviews with the suspect suggested that there was “no rational context” for his accusing people of being “genocidal,” according to the source.
David Englin, senior Los Angeles regional director at the Anti-Defamation League, told JNS that the organization has been in “close contact” with both the police and the district attorney’s office about the situation.
“We are confident that if the facts and evidence supported hate crime charges, those charges would have been filed,” he said.
“At the same time, given the dramatic rise in antisemitism over the past decade, many in the Jewish community understandably perceive rhetoric such as accusations of ‘genocide’ as potentially directed at or threatening to Jews,” Englin told JNS.
“However, based on the information currently available, it is difficult to determine the intent or motivation of an individual using that language absent additional context indicating it was directed at someone because of their Jewish or Israeli identity,” he said.
