Officials Get Warning on Internet Hate Mail

Hate crimes are being committed in cyberspace, and the Anti-Defamation League and Orange County Human Relations Council want Internet users to be aware.

“If you’re hooked on to e-mail, you are now subject to receiving hate mail,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael J. Gennaco told a group of Orange County law enforcement, school and city officials who gathered Tuesday at UC Irvine for a seminar on the issue.

“All you have to do is push a button and send anonymous e-mail,” Gennaco said. “There’s no postmark and you don’t know where the sender is. . . . It’s very invasive and frightening.”

Gennaco will prosecute a federal court case against a former UC Irvine student who in 1996 was indicted on 10 counts of civil rights violations for allegedly sending an anonymous computer message threatening to “hunt . . . down and kill” Asians on campus.

The case is set for trial next month. It is the first government prosecution of a federal hate crime allegedly committed in cyberspace.

“It’s a real issue that people need to begin to learn about so that we can determine what we need to do without infringing on people’s rights,” said Joyce Greenspan, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, which co-sponsored the seminar with the council. “We’re beginning to look at the answers.”

David Hoffman, a league research analyst, showed Internet sites of extremist groups.

“These guys are very blunt,” he said. “They have all kinds of sites and they push and abuse their 1st Amendment rights with lies and distortions.”

Hoffman said it’s the goal of his organization to expose and educate the public to the divisive material that can be found on the Internet. “Children see this and parents and teachers need to know,” he said.

“Our criminal justice system was conceived in a different era,” added FBI Supervisory Special Agent Charles M. Neal. Hate crimes on the Internet “are problems the framers of the Constitution never thought about.”