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Tag: locker

  • Newport Beach police investigate swastikas on school locker as hate crime

    Newport Beach police investigate swastikas on school locker as hate crime

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    Newport Beach police are investigating the tagging of swastikas on a locker at Corona del Mar High School as a hate crime, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District said.

    The school district became aware of the vandalism last weekend and reported it to the police.

    “This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our schools,” said Annette Franco, a spokesperson for the district. “We are investigating and have met with the Jewish Federation of Orange County to determine next steps in helping our school community to be better citizens. Immediate action is being taken as we develop longer-term plans.”

    A spokesperson for the Newport Beach Police Department said detectives were investigating.

    While the incident comes less than two weeks after the start of the war in Israel and Gaza, the school district has a history of antisemitic incidents.

    In 2019, police were notified after a group of high school students drinking alcohol at a house party took a photograph giving a Nazi salute around a table with red plastic cups arranged in the shape of a swastika.

    The students at that party attended Newport Harbor, Estancia and Costa Mesa high schools, not Corona del Mar High School.

    Reports of hate incidents have increased over the past few years in Orange County, spiking from 41 incidents in 2021 to 103 in 2022, according to a county report.

    Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, said there has been an increase in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents since the start of the war, though the data is very preliminary.

    Levin said there were seven antisemitic hate crimes reported in the city of Los Angeles between Oct. 6 and 16 this year, compared with three in the same period last year.

    “We have seen increases in anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish hate. More of the increases are occurring with noncriminal incidents, and anti-Jewish incidents for now seem to be going up more,” Levin said.

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    Noah Goldberg

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  • Banks working on digitising locker agreements 

    Banks working on digitising locker agreements 

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    With the September 30 deadline of getting the signature of least 50 per cent of their locker holders on a revised agreement looming, banks are internally working on a process to get the agreements signed digitally.

    According to highly placed sources, individually banks may not have obtained signatures of even 30 per cent of existing locker holders for the revised locker agreements. Collectively for the banking system, the adoption of these new agreements for existing customers is estimated to be much less.

    New pacts

    To expedite the process, banks are exploring whether the new agreements could be signed digitally.

    Aadhaar-enabled signature verification, email confirmation and confirmation through SMS are some of the possibilities that banks are exploring.

    “We have communicated our plans to pursue the revised locker agreements through digital consent mode and the regulator is okay with this in priciple,” said a senior executive of a private bank.

    Banks are now working on the best possible modes of obtaining consent and signatures of locker customers digitally.

    “Back-end systems are being put in place to find out how best we can do this digitally.

    “In a week or two, forms or processes involved in obtaining the signatures digitally will be rolled out,” said a CEO of a public sector bank.

    A few weeks back, India’s largest bank, State Bank of India, said it is working on digitising the revised locker agreements.

    Private sector banks, especially those which have come up in the last 20 years, may find the process of digitising the signatures or finding an alternative to get the locker customers physically sign the revised agreement less cumbersome.

    Challenges

    While there is some redundancy with respect to residence and/or email addresses, the traceability of customers is still seen better because in most cases they would have an additional banking relationship apart from just the locker or the related fixed deposit.

    “The possibility of contacting and communicating with the customers is quite high,” said CEO of a private bank. The challenge is with public sector banks, where senior citizens would account for more than 50 per cent of operational lockers and they may not be traceable through a mobile number or email address.

    “Identification of customers get more challenging as we approach tier 3/4/5 cities,” said a banker aware of the matter.

    Pointers

    Digitally signing new locker agreements

    Banks exploring the possibility of obtaining consent and signature of locker customers for revised agreements

    Aadhaar-enabled signature verification, email confirmation and confirmation through SMS are some of possibilities currently explored

    New agreements will have to be in place by December 31, 2023.

    All existing customers should be notified by April 30, 2023

    By June 30 & September 30, 50 per cent and 75 per cent of existing customers should have signed the new agreement

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