Antelope Valley Hate Crimes Underscore Need for Action : African Americans in Palmdale and Lancaster wonder whether their cities are experiencing growing pains or a case of deteriorating race relations.

African American residents of two communities in the high desert want to know if they are living in 1995 or 1965.

On March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights workers were brutally beaten as they marched across a bridge in Selma, Ala., to protest racist requirements that barred African Americans from voting.

Thirty years later, with legal protections in place and upward mobility apparently theirs for the taking, some African Americans are trying to comprehend why a peaceful coexistence with their white counterparts seems to elude them.

Case in point: the escalation of racially motivated hate crimes in the Antelope Valley.

Since mid-January, life has been anything but peaceful for Palmdale’s and Lancaster’s African American residents. According to Lynda Thompson Taylor, president of the local branch of the NAACP, “something is going haywire.” Taylor’s office has been notified about five hate-crime incidents, including a drive-by shooting that involved three white supremacist gang members. The three are charged with four counts of attempted murder, commission of a hate crime and child endangerment--because one victim was 1 year old.

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Other incidents include swastikas being painted on walls and African American children being chased home from school by white supremacist adults who physically attack them and rip backpacks from their shoulders. Some families have gone as far as setting up “safe houses” for the children in case they need protection along the way. This conjures up images of “safe houses” as part of the underground railroad system and the escape from bondage to freedom.

The situation prompted the NAACP to call a quasi-town hall meeting March 4. Representatives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the district attorney’s office, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice were on hand to answer questions posed by about 200 concerned, angry and frazzled residents.

Superintendents of several school districts also were on hand to discuss cultural sensitivity, peer counseling and conflict resolution training, or explain why such programs are not part of the curriculum, since there is a history of race-relation tensions in area high schools.

But the issue is not just about what happens in schools. It’s what isn’t happening on the streets that causes many to pause and wonder how committed the power structure is to stopping hate crimes.

The two cities combined pay the Sheriff’s Department about $18 million to serve and protect them. But African American residents are expressing concern that the services received do not meet their reasonable expectations. They cite examples of officers not taking reports, poor response times and a general lack of concern for the well-being of their children in crisis situations.

Others wonder if the lack of support from the Sheriff’s Department is a racial issue or a matter of economics. Is the issue about growing pains, or about a community’s failure to embrace its growing minority population?

This area has seen a population growth of 769% in 12 years, an estimated school population growth of 378%, a disproportionately high rate of unemployment and foreclosures, and an increase in ethnically and linguistically diverse populations. Many community leaders seem to be struggling to understand that big-city problems can’t be sufficiently addressed with a small-city, “the way things used to be” mentality.

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If African Americans are correct in their assessment of the Sheriff’s Department, then it is time for both communities to consider seriously establishing their own police forces. It’s a topic of discussion that has resurrected itself each year but has lost its steam when a decision had to be made.

It makes no sense for city officials to contract with the Sheriff’s Department to the tune of $18 million and have residents complain that officers don’t respond to calls, or cannot be found when they are needed. It’s lunacy for two cities to be held hostage by a Sheriff’s Department that is viewed as embracing one segment of the community and alienating the other.

Perhaps the most telling fact to come out of the “town meeting” was that many community powerbrokers do not consider cultural sensitivity training a high priority.

Maybe it never dawned on them that these once predominantly white communities, known to be less-than-embracing of minorities and still controlled by an old and conservative inner circle, need assistance in making the transition from a white-dominated world to one of shared power.

African Americans were 7% of the Palmdale-Lancaster population in 1990. The fact that minorities have moved into these communities in record numbers should have made someone realize the importance of substantive and mandatory cultural sensitivity or cultural diversity training in schools, local government, businesses and other community enterprises.

While Democrats continue to stammer and stutter and Republicans eviscerate federal programs aimed at helping poor children, Palmdale and Lancaster hobble along, wondering if they are experiencing growing pains or a case of deteriorating race relations.