On this date in 2000 in an Orange County, California courtroom, Kevin Timothy Dale, 27, a skinhead from Orange, California, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mark Sanjay David, a man of East Indian descent, following a punk rock concert in Orange in 1995. Dale was one of 15 to 20 skinheads who attacked, beat and kicked Mr. David while shouting racial slurs at him in the parking lot at the location of the concert. On April 21, 2000, Dale was given a three-year, one-month federal prison sentence. He was released from prison on September 27, 2002, at the age of 30.

Law enforcement improvements and perseverance pay off. On this date in 2008 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, ArgusLeader.com reporter Matthew Gruchow reported 2006 FBI hate crime statistics for that city showing a dramatic increase over the 2005 figures. Gruchow cited "changes in reporting requirements and computer software at the police department provided more detailed data to the FBI for its 2006 crime reports" compared with 2005. In 2005 Sioux Falls had one reported hate crime, but in 2006 they had 28, and Gruchow reported that 2006 might have been the first year that Sioux Falls had an accurate report of hate crime incidents to the FBI due to the new system that was put in place in 2004, but took two years to function properly.

On this date in 2010 in Santa Ana, California, Firestone Complete Auto Care automobile mechanic Hector Manuel Medina, 32, of Santa Ana, doused a homeless man's possessions with gasoline and then set them on fire in an alley behind Medina's place of employment on South Main Street. The fire spread to the homeless victim, Ruben Sandoval, 64, who received second- and third-degree burns to his body, face, and hands. In a plea bargain agreement, Hector M. Medina pleaded guilty to one felony count of arson causing great bodily injury with a sentencing enhancement for arson with an accelerant. Over the objections of the Orange County District Attorney's Office, Medina was sentenced to five years in state prison on February 22, 2010 (the prosecutor wanted an eleven-year prison sentence). As of the date of Hector Medina's conviction, Mr. Sandoval continued to be hospitalized on a ventilator; he was unable to breathe independently as a result of the injuries he sustained at the hands of Medina as well as preexisting medical conditions.