4 White Youths Held in Black Teen’s Beating

A black 17-year-old was chased and beaten by four white youths as he sold newspaper subscriptions in a Simi Valley shopping center Monday night in an incident that police are calling a purely racial hate crime.

Four teenage boys -- three of them from Simi Valley -- were arrested in connection with the assault, and police said they recovered skinhead and white power racial paraphernalia in one suspect’s car.

The violent episode drew swift condemnation from city officials who have often complained that the affluent suburb suffers unfairly from the image that it is plagued by racism.

To critics, that image was firmly planted 12 years ago, when a Simi Valley jury cleared Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King, sparking massive rioting. Although only two jurors came from Simi Valley, officials have struggled ever since to repair the city’s reputation.

“Simi Valley absolutely will not tolerate racially motivated crimes,” said Mayor Paul Miller, the city’s former police chief. “A small group of bullying thugs made a horrible decision....The City Council reacts to such a crime with a firm hand.”

Police say the incident occurred about 6:45 p.m. Monday in the 1200 block of Los Angeles Avenue as the victim, whose name was not released, and a co-worker sold newspaper subscriptions in front of a store.

Four teenage boys approached the victim and began shouting racial slurs at him. When he tried to walk away, one of the white youths punched him in the face, police said. The attackers began kicking and beating him after he tried to run, tripped over a planter and dislocated his knee, police said.

According to one witness, a woman who had left a nearby gym drove up frightened away the white youths and called police.

Along with the knee injury, the victim received scrapes and suffered a swollen face and head, police said.

He was taken to Simi Valley Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Minutes later, a patrol car stopped two of the teenagers who were driving erratically and speeding, police said. A search of the vehicle uncovered white power literature and other skinhead paraphernalia.

A 17-year-old suspect from Granada Hills was cited and released to his parents and a 16-year-old was taken to Juvenile Hall in Ventura.

On Tuesday afternoon, another 16-year-old was arrested on the Royal High School campus in Simi Valley and a 15-year-old, who once attended Apollo High, the city’s continuation high school, was arrested at home.

Both teenagers were to be taken to Juvenile Hall on Tuesday evening. Their cases will be sent to the Ventura County Probation Department, which will probably refer the matter to the Ventura County district attorney’s office, said Simi Valley Police Sgt. Paul Fitzpatrick.

Proud of its reputation as one of the nation’s safest cities, Simi Valley has been sensitive to accusations of racism.

In March, Simi Valley school officials instituted a ban on clothing or jewelry that depicted an Iron Cross, a recognizable symbol of Nazi Germany that is similar to a popular design used by skateboard and clothing manufacturers.

School officials said the ban was prompted by the recommendations of Simi Valley Police Department officers, who said the Iron Cross was a gang symbol.

John R. Hatcher III, president of the Ventura County Chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was not surprised when he learned of a racial incident in Simi Valley involving possible skinheads.

“So often I hear African Americans make comments about, ‘Don’t get picked up or stopped in Simi Valley,’ ” he said. “Black people in Simi Valley need to wake up and realize they have a problem in that area.”

City boosters had hoped that Simi Valley’s racist image had finally been laid to rest this summer, when images of the quiet, picturesque enclave were beamed to the nation as former President Ronald Reagan was buried there.

On Tuesday, city officials said the shopping center attack was an isolated incident.

“I will assure you that in my experience with the youth of this city, this type of crime is not representative of the community,” Miller said.

“To the victim and his family, we send our apologies,” he added. “You can be assured that the City Council will closely monitor the adjudication process to ensure that a hard-line position is taken against this crime and those responsible.”

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said the incident was caused by “a couple of kids with too much time on their hands,” and called on their parents to discipline them.

“What they need is for their parents to put them over a knee and give them a good spanking,” Williamson said. “I’m talking as a mother, and if they were my kids, that’s exactly what I’d do.”

Gennady Shtern, director of the San Fernando Valley office of the Anti-Defamation League, which monitors hate activity in eastern Ventura County, said it’s inaccurate to label Simi Valley as a breeding ground for white supremacists.

“Major incidents, like this one, this is the first one we have on record in Simi Valley in probably a dozen years or more,” said Shtern, who applauded the city for its swift arrest of the suspects.

Of the 20 hate incidents recorded by Simi Valley police since Jan. 1, 2000, most involved bigoted graffiti, such as swastikas, or threats with no violence.

There was one other black victim in that period, a man working in his yard who was called names by three white teenagers driving by in a convertible, according to police spokesman Sgt. Joseph May.

Simi Valley School District Supt. Kathryn Scroggin said educators have taken pains to spell out the district’s zero-tolerance policy for racial confrontations on any of their campuses. About 10 years ago, white supremacist literature was anonymously stuffed into some high school students’ lockers, she said.

Scroggin said there has been no noticeable escalation in white versus black tensions.

“If anything like that would occur, we would certainly take swift and decisive action,” she said. “We teach tolerance to our students. And we demand that they treat each other with respect.”

The 22,000-student district is 71% white, while African Americans constitute 2% of the student population, with larger numbers of Latinos and Asian Americans.

*Times staff writer Monte Morin contributed to this report.