The Militia Comes to the Neighborhood

They’ve got two young sons and a third child due in September. There’s excitement in the Lazarou household, but fatigue, too. “It would sure be nice,” Michael says, “to get a decent night’s sleep.”

He and wife Charisse have plenty of concerns without having to think about the cretin or cretins who visited Firmament Avenue a couple of weekends ago. Leaflets were deposited, illegally, in just about everybody’s mailbox. Here, on a street that served as a location for “The Brady Bunch Movie,” some sort of “militia” was delivering a message.

This was a few days after controversy erupted over the videotaped beating of two illegal immigrants by a pair of Riverside County sheriff’s deputies. “The Militia of the United States,” the leaflets declared, “is checking green cards. Any American caught giving employment to an illegal alien will be reported to the immigration service, the business association of your profession and the police. This includes homeowners. Don’t give them work and they won’t come here.”

*

To give not much credit where not much is due, whoever was responsible at least acknowledges that illegal immigrants come here primarily to work. To give credit where more is due, the folks on Firmament didn’t shrug it off.

They got angry and notified the media. They wanted whoever was responsible to know that such tactics were not appreciated. It’s one thing to have pondered Proposition 187 and voted yea or nay. It’s something else to find these little notices of intimidation at your front door.

And on Firmament, a street that serves as a border between Sherman Oaks and Encino, it’s not surprising that they succeeded in stirring fear.

Since the notice arrived, one Latina housekeeper, afraid to walk on the street, has been driven to and from work by her husband.

“And this housekeeper is not an illegal immigrant,” Lazarou adds. “I believe she’s a naturalized citizen who votes in every election.”

He isn’t sure about that. But then, the point is it’s hard to know who is and isn’t an illegal immigrant.

Lazarou, who is 35 years old, speaks from personal experience. His heritage is Hungarian and Puerto Rican. A few years ago, he says, he was visiting a friend whose home was being remodeled. Lazarou was outside, conversing in Spanish with a worker. A stranger approached and asked if they had green cards.

“I said, ‘I was born in this city, Jack.’ ”

Lazarou is also a student of this city. A federal-prosecutor-turned-TV-writer, he wrote the 1990 cable TV movie “Heat Wave,” a docudrama based on the Watts riots of 1965. The film won several awards, including one for Lazarou from the Writers Guild of America.

A couple of years later, Los Angeles’ racial tension would explode again. If it hadn’t been for the verdict in the Rodney King beating, Lazarou says, something else would have triggered another round of riots.

It happens that Charisse McGhee-Lazarou, an NBC executive, is African American. A couple of days after the trouble started at Florence and Normandie, she went into labor. It was late at night, past curfew. Lazarou drove through National Guard checkpoints to get his wife to the UCLA Medical Center.

Being part of an interracial family, he says, is another reason for concern when the self-appointed militia types get busy.

“There’s a feeling like, OK, this week it’s illegal aliens. Who is it next week? Is it Jews or African Americans or Asians? Who’s going to be the flavor of the month? Who are they going to go after next time?

“It’s an exercise in scapegoating.”

Lazarou says it would be wrong to exaggerate the fear the leaflet provoked in him.

“It’s a concern. But it’s always a concern.”

*

It was nice to be able to tell Lazarou some good news on the hate front. On Monday, the Assembly voted 72-0 for a bill that outlaws the placement of any writing on or in a product on a grocery-store shelf without the consent of a store owner or private manufacturer. A state Senate vote on the issue is expected within two weeks.

Had it not been for North Hills resident Michael Manning, this legislation might not exist. Last fall, Manning found particularly ugly hate literature in a box of Cheez-It crackers and, instead of dismissing it, decided to raise his voice in protest. He was shocked to learn that anti-tampering laws didn’t apply if the propagandist didn’t break the product seal. His complaints prompted the Los Angeles City Council to adopt an ordinance and Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Woodland Hills) to introduce parallel legislation in Sacramento.

What happened on Firmament Avenue, however, was already against the law. It’s a federal offense to put anything other than mail in mailboxes. Attorneys who are familiar with hate crimes say that even if the perpetrator were caught, enforcement would be problematic because prosecutors seldom go after contractors, landscapers and others who put ads in mailboxes.

Then again, Lazarou and Manning would agree that hatred can’t be legislated or prosecuted away. But on Firmament, Lazarou found something else to feel good about.

“What was heartening is that the whole neighborhood was really upset by this. . . . They didn’t just go, ‘Oh, so what?’. . . That’s the good news. And it is good news.

“I have very nice neighbors.”

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number.