Beating of Teen Called Hate Crime

An 18-year-old high school student walking home from a store Wednesday was punched and kicked by four men who shouted racial epithets during an attack that authorities are calling a hate crime.

The Latino teenager, whose name was not released, was strolling near a flood-control channel at Beach Boulevard and Atlanta Avenue about 3 p.m. when four white men threw what appeared to be a beer bottle at him, police Lt. Luis Ochoa said. They repeatedly yelled at him to “go back to Mexico,” shouted epithets and beat him with their fists. When the man fell to the ground, the assailants repeatedly kicked him in the head with their boots.

He suffered abrasions and cuts to the head and had “what looks like a boot mark on his forehead,” Ochoa said.

The student continued home after the assault and got medical help on his own, though he was not hospitalized, police said. Police were searching for the assailants, who were described as white, 18 to 20 years old, with closely shaven heads.

The attackers wore black nylon flight jackets, knee-length cut-off pants and black boots with red laces, which signifies “a hard-core skinhead,” Ochoa said. “One of them had a swastika tattoo.”

The assault weighed heavily on law enforcement and city officials, who declared a “Policy on Human Dignity” in May to fight hate crimes in a city known for being a gathering place of skinheads.

In February, a Native American was stabbed 27 times by a white teenager. George Mondragon, 20, survived the attack, which spurred the City Council to craft the policy against hate crimes.

City Councilman Ralph H. Bauer said Wednesday that he was at once outraged and frustrated to hear about the attack.

“We abhor this kind of behavior and we’re going to do everything we can to stop it,” Bauer said.

About a week ago, Bauer and about 400 residents and community leaders met in a meeting coordinated by the Orange County Human Relations Committee to find solutions to hate crimes that plague the city. Educational efforts are underway and authorities are putting together a team of council members and other city officials to visit victims of hate crimes.

“We want to indicate our support for them, and frankly, to be on their side,” Bauer said. “The difficulty in all this is that you would like to do something about it before it happens. And we’re trying to educate people, but that’s a major, major task and an ongoing effort.”

After the February incident, police also stepped up downtown patrols, seeking to stop hate crimes before they occur. Wednesday’s attack happened about a mile from downtown.