Racial Slur Scrawled on a Campaign Sign

A campaign sign in the front yard of a black resident of Port Hueneme was defaced with the initials of the Ku Klux Klan last week.

Ulysses Farley, 56, said he was leaving his house for work Wednesday morning when he noticed that a political sign in his front yard had been knocked down. When he picked up the sign he saw that the letters KKK had been scrawled on it with an ink marker, he said.

Farley called Port Hueneme police from his job at the Point Mugu Naval Air Station. An officer went to the house, talked with Farley’s wife, Deloris Farley, and took a report.

Police officials who handled the case could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Toni Young, a newly elected councilwoman whose campaign sign was defaced, is white and said she doubted she was the target of the defacement. Young said her other campaign signs in the neighborhood were not disturbed.

“I think it was kids being vicious,” said Young, who lives a few blocks away. She said she plans to push for creation of a Neighborhood Watch in the area to prevent such incidents.

The Farleys, who have an 11-year-old daughter, said they have lived on the street on the northeast side of Port Hueneme for 20 years. He said his neighborhood is racially mixed and his family has had no other problems with residents.

“I consider it a hate crime,” Farley said. “I still feel very tense. It might be a prank, but you don’t know what the intent was of the person who wrote it. I know it’s not a good thing.”