Hate Crime Awareness Vigil Planned for Wednesday
As noted previously on CalStuff, there has been a rash of recent reports of hate crimes occuring on or near campus. This Wednesday, from 5-6 pm on lower Sproul there will be a Hate Crime Awareness Vigil. According to the e-mail I received announcing this event, it will be "Sponsored by the Chancellor's Task Force on Hate & Bias and the Office of Student Life." For more information, you can visit the Task Force's website, although they don't seem to have anything posted yet about the vigil on Wednesday.

I'm not opposed to events such as this, they just seem largely ineffectual to me. Obviously the vast, vast majority of students opposed hate crimes (and all other crimes, for that matter.) I'm not sure what standing around with some candles is supposed to accomplish. You can never entirely do away with the hate and bias that drives people to commit hate crimes, so better security and swift punishment for anyone who commits a hate crime are the key to preventing them in the future. Many groups also take proactive steps to deter any type of crime, such as Berkeley Hillel, which will hire private security or request an increase in police patrols at times when there might be an increased risk of an attack (such as the recent High Holidays).

CalStuff will attempt to attend the event to take pictures and gauge the size of the crowd on Wednesday.
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