Racial Incidents Prompt Conference on Bigotry

As Pasadena leaders gather today for a conference on bigotry and hate crimes, police are investigating an incident in which a racial epithet and a dead skunk were left this week at a house just purchased by an African American.

The apparent hate crime is the latest in a series of racial incidents, including a cross-burning on a rabbi’s lawn in February, and a rattlesnake that authorities believe was deliberately placed in an African American’s driveway last spring.

“These are not the random acts of a bunch of eccentrics,” said Pasadena Mayor William M. Paparian, who organized the two-day conference at the Doubletree Hotel. “These are cold, calculated, smart people.”

The forum, sponsored in part by the Brotherhood Crusade, will feature 22 experts on extremist groups and hate crimes, including representatives of the Anti-Defamation League and the California Hate Crimes Commission. Scheduled speakers include attorney James McElroy, who helped prosecute White Aryan Resistance founder Tom Metzger.

Police said an African American woman had purchased but not yet moved into the house on Las Lunas Street where the dead skunk and epithet were left. A passerby saw the scrawled epithet Wednesday and called authorities, said Police Lt. Marilyn Diaz.

“I think the [O.J.] Simpson verdict will escalate these kind of hate crimes,” said Pasadena NAACP President Charles Bereal. Within 15 minutes of Simpson’s acquittal, Bereal said, the office was inundated with racist calls, including death threats.

During last spring’s City Council election, the campaign signs of several minority candidates were vandalized with racial remarks. About that time, Aryan Nations held a meeting in Pasadena with more than 60 people in attendance, police said.

Pasadena’s large population of people of Armenian and Greek descent has also been targeted, said Paparian, an Armenian American. City Prosecutor Tracy Webb said all the incidents remain unsolved.

Some Pasadena council members were not pleased about how the conference took shape, saying organizers misrepresented it as a city-sponsored event.

Councilman William E. Thomson Jr. said an invitation to the event seems to blame Republicans for hate crimes. “What has a talk about the religious right got to do with hate crimes?” Thomson asked, referring to the topic of one of the workshops.