Two Arrested in Assault Deputies Call Hate Crime

A 22-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of a racially motivated attack on two black teenagers in Lancaster, one of whom was slashed with a weapon like a machete, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said Tuesday.

Another 15-year-old boy was detained for questioning in the attack, in which the two teenagers were assaulted Monday night by three “skinhead types” shouting “white power,” deputies said.

Danny Williams, 22, and a 16-year-old, both of Lancaster, were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and committing a hate crime, sheriff’s Deputy Diane Hecht said.

African American activists protested Tuesday that Antelope Valley officials have ignored racial animosities in the area and failed to implement recommendations made by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Rights after a skinhead attack last year.

Marcus Cotton, 16, was walking with his cousin Angela McKenzie, 17, to her home a few blocks away from his family’s Avenue J residence about 11 p.m. Monday when three men driving past yelled “white power” and gave a Nazi-style salute, sheriff’s deputies said.

The cousins ran when the car--a burgundy Chevy Camaro of 1960s vintage--made a U-turn to return to them, but the car caught up with them at Gingham Avenue and Avenue J. Two passengers got out and shoved Angela and one of them spit on her, deputies said.

They kicked and punched Marcus to the ground, and the driver slashed him with a machete-like weapon, inflicting four minor cuts on his back and shoulders, said sheriff’s Sgt. Darrel Brown.

Marcus was treated at a local hospital and released.

He told KCAL-TV: “I don’t even understand why they did it. It’s kind of like my mind went . . . blank. Why would somebody want to get you for the color of your skin, or your ethnic background? Just because you’re black, they come after you.”

Gary Auer, FBI supervisor for the Antelope Valley, said agents were investigating to determine whether federal civil rights laws were violated.

Lynda Thompson Taylor, president of the Antelope Valley branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, charged that local officials choose to ignore racial conflict, while promoting the area as a haven from urban problems.

“There’s a need out here to paint a picture that things are peachy-keen,” she said. “They’re not. We’ve got real problems out here and they’re getting worse.”

Earlier this year, a black Antelope Valley High School student was stabbed in the back with a screwdriver on the Lancaster campus. In February 1995, a group of men described as skinheads fired shots into a parked car occupied by four African Americans, including a 1-year-old girl. They suffered minor injuries, mostly from shattered glass. The three attackers in that case are now in prison.

That assault led to a report by the county human rights commission, “Skinheads in the Antelope Valley,” which estimated that 40 to 100 potentially violent skinheads live in the area and called for such measures as community forums, augmented diversity hiring and training for law enforcement officers and a hate-crime policy for public schools.

Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts, responding to the report, called such attacks an appalling but “uncommon occurrence.”

“We are immensely concerned about hate crimes and the image we seem to have, which is not true,” he said. “We do not have a greater number of hate crimes in our region.”

He said the city has formed a council of community leaders to educate small-business owners on the benefits of workplace diversity. The council has urged more than 300 employers to hire minorities, he said.

Sheriff’s Deputy Ken Westfall, who heads the Antelope Valley anti-gang unit, said skinheads are a visible presence in the area, but that despite occasional violence, they commit fewer crimes than other gangs. “They’re just not that active,” he said. “But when hate crimes rear their ugly heads, we deal with them.”

But Carla Arranaga, hate-crimes prosecutor for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, said the Antelope Valley is an active area for hate crimes.

“We’ve handled three felony hate crimes in the area in the last year and a half,” she said. “That doesn’t take into consideration non-felonies and crimes committed by juveniles.”

The area has undergone dramatic demographic shifts. Palmdale, which was 84% white in 1980, was 60% white last year.