Series of Hate Crimes Shakes Up Residents of Hawaiian Gardens : Racism: Blacks accuse Latinos of attacks. ‘I used to feel safe here. Now I just don’t,’ says a woman whose home was firebombed.

Cynthia Hayes looks at her tiny, charred dining room and talks of moving her family out of Hawaiian Gardens. She wants to get away from the memory of a firebomb that crashed through the window on March 6, the ugly racial slurs painted on the wall outside. She fears for her children.

But her mother, her boyfriend, even her Latino neighbors urge her not to run from the bigots.

The Molotov cocktail thrown through Hayes’ window capped a week of violence between Latinos and the city’s growing black community: five race crimes in six days, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

The incidents have been so troubling that the FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into civil rights violations in the city, said Special Agent John Hoos. The investigation will concentrate on the violations and housing discrimination, Hoos said.

Four deputies at the sheriff’s Lakewood substation have been assigned to a special investigative team team. So far, no suspects have been identified.

City officials are so surprised at the sudden outbreak of racial incidents that they appear unsure how to respond. No hate crimes have been recorded in the city in the last three years. And neighbors say they are distressed over this sudden wave of hate, most of it aimed at blacks.

“We’re Latinos and we’re just not that way,” said one 24-year-old man who asked not to be identified. “We are not racists.”

Hayes, who moved to the city three years ago for its quiet streets and schools, said she has felt prejudice for some time.

“I used to feel safe here. Now I just don’t,” Hayes, 35, said.

Hayes, her children and her boyfriend said they have all heard racial epithets from passing cars.

On Tuesday, Hayes’ 14-year-old daughter was removed from her classes at Killingsworth Junior High at the request of the school principal because of tension at the school related to the firebombing. The girl will return to classes on Monday, but her enthusiasm for the school seems to have waned, Hayes said.

Hayes’ daughter said a group of Latinas asked her about the fire. When the eighth-grader described the terrifying incident, the other girls laughed at her, she said.

The racial incidents began March 1, when a black family on Clarkdale Avenue found their house covered with ethnic slurs and graffiti threats, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Torreblanca. One message read, “We gonna shoot up your house and we don’t care if you got kids inside,” Torreblanca said.

The messages appear to be written by gang members because of the language used, deputies said, but the victims are not gang-affiliated.

“This is just a family with kids, trying to live,” Torreblanca said.

The second incident occurred March 4 when a black man was jumped by four Latino males as he walked through a parking lot near Pioneer Boulevard and Carson Street. He was taunted with racial slurs and suffered a fractured cheekbone when he was beaten, Torreblanca said.

The next day, a house belonging to a black family was covered with threatening racial graffiti.

Hours later, in an unrelated incident, words were exchanged between a Latino man and four black men in a car near Norwalk Boulevard and Carson Street. Three shots were fired from the car, striking the Latino man once in the hip, deputies said. The victim was treated at a local hospital and released.

On March 6, about 1:30 a.m., someone threw a firebomb through Hayes’ sliding glass door while she dozed on a couch nearby. After rushing her children outside, Hayes saw that her low brick wall was covered with racial epithets and obscenities.

Speculation about the source of the incidents runs rampant in this city of about 13,500 residents. Most theories center on gangbangers and tension resulting from the changing face of Hawaiian Gardens, which has had a Latino majority for more than a decade. The 1990 Census showed that nearly 67% of the city is Latino. The number of blacks has increased by 412% in the past 10 years, but blacks make up only 4.3% of the population.

The number of blacks in the city of small houses and strip malls is still small, but the residents have felt the difference, said Mayor Kathleen Navejas.

“What I think is, this community is changing, and some of the Hispanic people have a problem with the black culture,” Navejas said. “We just have an escalating situation in this city right now, and we need to show we will not condone this behavior.”

Elected officials have taken no action in connection with the racial violence, Navejas said, and council members did not discuss the subject at their Tuesday night meeting. Only one resident spoke out during the public comments portion of the meeting, concerned that the incidents would create a bad image for the city.

Navejas said officials were looking to counselors on city staff and a coalition of churches to help educate the community and determine the extent of racial discord.

But Maria Lloyd, assistant to City Administrator Nelson Oliva, said the coalition of church leaders met Tuesday morning and would offer help only to Cynthia Hayes. When asked about the other victims of racial violence, Lloyd said she considered the firebombing of Hayes’ home the only racial incident of the prior week, even if sheriff’s deputies said there were five.

Royce Esters, president of the Compton branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said concerned citizens have come to him about the incidents. He told them city leaders need to take charge in heading off bigotry and suggested that Hawaiian Gardens have a Unity Day, patterned after one in Compton that brought all races together for a forum to clear the air, Esters said.

“You know, Hispanics and blacks are in the same situation,” Esters said. “We shouldn’t be fighting each other.”

Hayes’ home still bears the scars of the weekend attack: A sheet of plywood covers a gaping hole in the sliding glass door and the acoustic ceiling and walls remain blackened from smoke damage, despite scrubbing. Hayes’ landlord, Dave Bixby, said he is aware of the damage and is waiting to find a non-Latino crew to repair the house, out of concern for Hayes’ feelings.

Hayes said she has no problem with her Latino neighbors on Seine Avenue near the Long Beach border. When she and her family moved into the house, several of the neighbors came by to welcome them, she said.

Since the fire, several neighbors have stopped by to share their concern and offer assistance.

“I’ve lived on this street 43 years and never seen anything like it,” said Frank Nunez. “They’re real nice people, too. There’s never been any trouble.”

Nunez has kept an eye on the street since last weekend, and said he would intervene if someone tried to attack the Hayes’ home again. His son and Hayes’ 16-year-old boy play basketball together, he said.

Despite the support of neighbors, Hayes is still thinking about moving out of her rented home.

“It’s frightening to think someone can do something like that when you’re asleep,” she said.

Her mother and boyfriend are encouraging Hayes not to run in fear, but she is concerned about her children and the taunts they hear in school. Her 8-year-old son has been in numerous scrapes and told his mother he fights because other children make fun of his skin color. Hayes said she informed his teacher of the problem more than once, but no action was taken.

When Hayes speaks of her children and the taunts they bear, she shakes her head. Why stay in this atmosphere, she asks.

But her boyfriend urges her to stay.

“If we leave, that will make them feel big,” said Hayes’ boyfriend, who asked not to be identified. “Like they won something.”