A photo of a police siren light on the street in San Francisco.
JasonDoiy/Getty Images/iStockphotoThe San Francisco District Attorney’s office is filing hate crime charges against a suspect who allegedly attacked a Jewish man with a skateboard.
Prosecutors say that on Dec. 17, Eduardo Navarro Perez asked a Jewish man on Haight Street if he was Black or Jewish. When the man said he was Jewish, Perez allegedly proceeded to attack him with the skateboard. The man told officials that during the attack, Perez made “disparaging remarks towards Jewish people.”
There is a high bar for hate crime charges. The DA’s Office told SFGATE that since District Attorney Brooke Jenkins took office in July, hate crime enhancements have been filed in just three other felony cases and one misdemeanor case. Her office previously faced criticism for not charging the suspect who allegedly attacked former San Francisco Commissioner Greg Chew with a hate crime, but prosecutors believed they did not have enough evidence to sustain such a charge.
This case, however, is different given the man’s description of events.
“There is no place for antisemitism, or any crimes motivated by hate in San Francisco, in our state or anywhere else,” Jenkins said in a statement. “We will do everything in our power to hold Navarro Perez accountable and ensure that there are consequences for this attack. This prosecution will send a message to all who seek to sow division that our diversity and unity makes us strong, and we will not sit idly by and allow anyone to be singled out and victimized because of who they are.”
The attack comes amid a rise in antisemitic incidents nationally. It also comes a month after public figures such as the rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving publicly endorsed antisemitic views.
Perez is also facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon. He could be sentenced to up to seven years in state prison if convicted.