ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Questions About an Attack

The shifting struggle for civil rights in America in part is being won and lost these days in suburban neighborhoods. Local law enforcement agencies can play an important part in the outcome simply by the manner in which they investigate acts of violence with racial overtones.

Civil rights activists are expressing concern that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s current investigation of a brutal attack on a black girl in Anaheim two weeks ago may not be as vigorous or sensitive as it should be. The department insisted last week that it was investigating the case only as an assault and not as a racial incident, a disturbing approach in view of what the victim and witnesses have reported.

The victim, Amber Jefferson, is recovering at home after having her face ripped open with a shard of glass in a dispute between blacks and whites in a condominium parking lot. Black leaders understandably are concerned that this case merely reinforces images of the suburbs as off-limits to minorities, and that the beating of a black girl may go unpunished.

It’s true that investigators must take care before filing charges. However, they should not disregard a racial dimension to the incident.

At some point, the Sheriff’s Department might be well-advised to call in the U.S. Justice Department to examine the civil rights aspects of this troubling incident.

After all, local law enforcement agencies should be sensitive enough to racial issues to know when they can benefit from outside expertise in the course of an investigation. In the future, they are likely to have more, not fewer, such inquiries, especially as different ethnic groups move into previously all-white enclaves. So agencies must have adequate guidelines and procedures of their own in place for conducting investigations of crimes with racial overtones.

How the Orange County Sheriff’s Department handles this particular case will be a measure of the overall credibility of its inquiry, and the department.