Spate of Hate Crimes Heightens Concerns

ANTELOPE VALLEY —  Individually, each of the three ethnically motivated incidents in the Antelope Valley in the last 12 days is enough to send shudders through a region associated in recent years with vicious hate crimes.

But together, the three attacks--one against the Antelope Valley’s only Jewish temple, one against an African American man and one against an African American boy--have outraged and bewildered community members, who said Tuesday it only strengthens their resolve to continue their efforts against bigotry and hate.

On Monday, a 30-year-old black man was walking near his Littlerock home when a car pulled up, containing four young men who shouted racial epithets in Spanish before shooting him in the buttocks, authorities said.

Sunday night or early Monday, Temple Beth Knesset Bamidbar in Lancaster was vandalized by someone who scrawled swastikas and anti-Semitic messages on the building, according to a sheriff’s investigator and congregation members.

On Jan. 14, a 15-year-old black youth was attacked in Lancaster by three white boys with shaved heads who shouted racial slurs, the investigator said.

The three crimes, which appear to be unrelated, have only their underlying themes of hate and a lack of suspects in common, authorities said. But community members said they evoke a disturbing history of hate crimes in the region.

“No group or people or organization should be the target of sentiments of hate or statements of bigotry. You feel violated. You feel angry,” said Natalie Angrisani, president of Temple Beth Knesset Bamidbar, which has 135 members.

Community leaders also vowed to fight back against any resurgence of hate.

“We are in a war . . . and we are not backing down from our efforts to re-educate the community,” said Darren Parker, president of the Antelope Valley Human Relations Hate Crime Task Force. “They are trying to promote their message of hate, and we are trying to promote our message of one race--the human race, and zero tolerance of hate.”

The reform synagogue had been vandalized about half a dozen times in the last few years, and was last defaced about a year ago by someone who drew a swastika on the building. But there had not been any seriously physical hate attacks by a group against an individual in the Antelope Valley in three or four years, law enforcement and community members said.

“It’s quite scary,” said Parker, referring to the shooting and the attack on the youth. “These attacks seem random.”

The shooting, in particular, is reminiscent of other acts of violence against Antelope Valley African Americans in the mid-1990s, Parker said. In 1995, a group of skinheads shot at a carful of African Americans. Also that year, three people affiliated with the same white supremacist group beat a black man to death.

In Monday’s incident, Kevin Naylor was walking on 110th Street East near Avenue R-8 about 9:30 a.m. in the Littlerock neighborhood where he lived when a white Toyota or Nissan compact sedan pulled alongside him, said Sgt. Vincent Burton of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Palmdale station.

Naylor, who is recovering at an area hospital, told authorities he did not recognize the men. No witnesses have been located so far, Burton said.

Sometime late Sunday or early Monday, one or more vandals scrawled hate symbols and messages on the front door, an information panel and a side wall of the temple, authorities and congregation members said.

“The type of writing looked like kids’,” said Det. Brian Schoonmaker of the sheriff’s Lancaster station. All the writing, done with a black marker, was at a level lower than which someone of an adult’s height would scrawl. The word Nazi was misspelled, Angrisani said.

Authorities are now examining Lancaster schools and buses for similar graffiti. “It was a unique penmanship. We’re trying to match the type of letters . . . to identify the kid,” Schoonmaker said.

“It’s disgusting,” congregation member Judith Dutcher of Quartz Hill said of the vandalism. “It’s not as bad as being raped, but it’s close to that. My concern is that it’s getting more frequent.”

The Jan. 14 incident occurred about 5 p.m. when a brown four-door sedan containing three white teens who appeared to be about 15 to 17 years old pulled up to a 15-year-old black boy walking near the corner of 20th Street East and Avenue J-8. The youths shouted “white power” and racial slurs at the boy, Schoonmaker said.

One youth jumped out of the car and tried to hit the boy, who tried to hit back. Then two more youths got out and joined the fray, Schoonmaker said.

The entire scuffle, which lasted only a couple of minutes, left the boy with loose teeth and a facial scrape, Schoonmaker said. The three youths, described as having shaved heads and wearing red suspenders and shoelaces, jumped back into the car and drove away.

The attacks were denounced by public officials in the region.

“We’re dead serious about fighting hate crimes,” said Henry W. Hearns, vice mayor of Lancaster. Whoever committed these crimes, he added, “may think they’re not going to get caught, but I can guarantee they’re going to get caught. We’re not planning to let anyone get away with this.”

Others said continuing outreach efforts that promote tolerance and diversity are key. “We need to keep educating our students, our young people, community at large,” said Angrisani, the temple president. “Education is the only way to dispel myths or fears people may have about things they don’t understand,”

The Sheriff’s Department is asking anyone with information about the Littlerock case to call (661) 267-4324 and the Lancaster cases to call (661) 940-3860.