SAN ANTONIO – In the wake of a series of hate-related crimes in and around San Antonio, an organization is emphasizing the need for harmony.
Misty Harty is director of the Racial Justice and Equity Institute, a program run by the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) of San Antonio.
Harty said the organization has been working for more than a century to promote unity and fairness.
“That’s through Jim Crow. That’s through segregation… Civil Rights,” Harty said.
She argued that the troubles of those times still persist, and the organization is needed more than ever.
Harty said the current climate in the U.S., marked by hostility toward diversity, seems to be stoking the flames.
“This undercurrent of a message that somehow those people… are taking our resources, our access,” Harty said. “Our community right now demands efforts to unify and to heal.”
Harty made the comments in response to a series of incidents in San Antonio, all of which appear to be motivated by hate based on race or religion.
Most recently, a group of people vandalized homes and vehicles with antisemitic rhetoric on Saturday in a North Side neighborhood.
San Antonio police said the suspects appeared to be four people under the age of 15. So far, no arrests have been made in the case.
Just two days before that, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office arrested Nathan Henderson, 39, who’s accused of making threats to kill Jewish and Black people.
The sheriff’s office said weapons, grenades and evidence were found inside his north Bexar County home that suggested ties to White supremacist groups.
Two other men, both arrested in June, are accused of making racial threats on YouTube, aimed at politicians and protestors. Joseph Veilleux, 55, and Travis Hayson, 48, face charges in separate cases, according to records.
In March, someone knocked down and destroyed several crosses that were set up along Quintana Road in memory of 53 immigrants who died in the back of a hot trailer back in 2022.
>>‘We’ve worked so hard to keep up with it’: Quintana Road memorial for 53 migrants vandalized
Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, who assessed the damage at the scene on Quintana Road, said he believes the vandalism was a hate crime. He also promised to prosecute the case accordingly once the perpetrator is caught.
SAPD data indicates that the department has investigated an average of three hate crime cases per month so far in 2025.
As of July 31, the department has investigated 21 hate crime cases in total. In all of 2024, San Antonio police conducted 34 hate crime investigations, department data shows.
Harty says a lot of the crimes are based on fear of others. She believes a possible solution would be to have open and honest conversations among people and as a nation, regarding race.
“We are human beings. I may be a different race. I may be a different gender. But there are opportunities for commonality,” Harty said.
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