Rally for Victim in Hate Crime Case Planned

The Orange County Human Relations Commission will sponsor a rally today to show support for a Native American man who was attacked and stabbed repeatedly last weekend, reportedly by two self-proclaimed white supremacists.

Commission members voted at Thursday night’s meeting to join representatives from various American Indian tribes and local civil rights groups in a noon rally outside UCI Medical Center in Orange, where the 20-year-old victim is recovering.

Authorities have refused to identify him for fear of retaliation against him and his family. The attack occurred at 12:45 a.m. Sunday while the man and two friends were at Huntington Beach.

Police arrested Erik Roy Anderson, 20, of Huntington Beach and a 17-year-old from La Palma. They said the 17-year-old punched the victim and knocked him to the ground before Anderson stabbed him 27 times.

Police identified both suspects as skinheads and said Anderson told them he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

The alliance of Native American groups will be led by Fern Mathias, executive director of the American Indian Movement of Southern California. The Chumash, Cherokee, Algonquin and Yaqui will be represented at the rally, Mathias said. Members of the Mexica tribe from Baja California also will attend, she said.

John Gradias, 31, of Huntington Beach lobbied the commission earlier in the week to stage the rally and news conference. Gradias is Yaqui.

Skinheads “have taken so much from Huntington Beach. Now I’m supposed to be afraid to go down there because of my skin color? That’s ridiculous,” he said.

In the last few years, downtown Huntington Beach has been plagued by incidents involving bands of skinheads harassing and beating nonwhites. However, commission member Rusty Kennedy said that Huntington Beach is not the only Orange County city that has recorded skinhead violence. He called skinheads “a regional problem.”

Commission members said they have been approached by Huntington Beach officials to help them develop a strategy to deal with the skinheads, who have become a fixture in the city.

Both suspects are in custody at Orange County Jail. A third suspect, Shannon Martin, 23, of Huntington Beach, also was arrested and charged with hiding the knife allegedly used by Anderson in the stabbing. Martin, who did not participate in the attack, is also being held at Orange County Jail.