Rights Groups Rally Around Victim

Saying they need to show solidarity, representatives from ethnic and advocacy groups Friday rallied around a Native American man who was brutally stabbed last week in what police called a hate crime.

More than 50 people from civil rights groups joined at a news conference to raise awareness of hate crimes and call on police to vigorously pursue and prosecute those who harm others because of their race, ethnicity, religious affiliation or sexual orientation.

The event was held at UC Irvine Medical Center, where 20-year-old George Mondragon has been recovering from an attack in which he was slashed 27 times by a man police said is a self-described white supremacist.

Organized by the Orange County Human Relations Commission and the Southern California chapter of the American Indian Movement, the news conference attracted a broad range of groups, including the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, 100 Black Men of Orange County and the Japanese American Citizens League.

The Human Relations Commission recorded 182 hate incidents or crimes in 1994, the most recent year for which the number is available. The statistics have remained steady over the years, the commission said.

Moved to tears by the show of support for her son, Toni Velasquez, who stumbled upon the news conference while visiting her son, also called for harsh punishment for those who commit hate crimes.

“We need to do something about these people [with] all this venom. They’re just running around and hurting people,” Velasquez said.

Mondragon was listed in fair and stable condition.

As she hugged and shook hands with people outside the hospital, Velasquez assailed her son’s attackers as “sick to do something like this--treating people like they’re animals.”

Yet while she’s angry with what happened, her son isn’t, Velasquez said. “He doesn’t have that kind of a heart,” she said.

For his part, Mondragon sent a handwritten message on a napkin to the Human Relations Commission on Friday, saying: “Thank God I’m still alive. I want to thank everyone for all their love, prayers and support.”

Mondragon and two friends were sitting near a Huntington Beach lifeguard tower last Saturday when they were approached by a man who asked if they believed in “white power,” police said. The man then repeatedly slashed Mondragon with a knife.

Police later arrested Huntington Beach residents Erik Anderson, 20, who told police he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Riverside, and Shannon Martin, 23. A juvenile has also been arrested.

Anderson and the juvenile have been charged with attempted murder; Martin is charged with being an accessory to attempted murder. All three remain in custody.

“Things like this have just got to stop,” said Fern Mathias of the American Indian Movement, a nonprofit Minneapolis-based organization that seeks to restore pride in Native American ways. “There should be some proactive enforcement that will send a clear message to purveyors of hate, that their acts against minority members will not be tolerated.”

John Gravias, a Native American who lives in Huntington Beach, said that although the attack occurred in his city, it could have happened anywhere. “It’s not just in Huntington Beach, it’s countywide, statewide,” he said at the news conference. “Ninety-nine percent of the people here are great . . . It’s the other 1% that we need to stop somehow.”