Agencies Target Hate Crimes in Antelope Valley

The federal government is stepping up investigations of hate crimes in the Antelope Valley in response to concerns that the number of reported incidents there is increasing and the level of violence is escalating, officials said last week.

Over the last 18 months, the FBI has assigned at least four agents to the desert area and, in an unusual collaboration, the U.S. attorney’s office is working on a regular basis with county prosecutors--exchanging files and plotting courtroom strategy, authorities said.

Friday’s arrest of a 23-year-old self-proclaimed skinhead in Lancaster in connection with two separate attacks on black men last year is the latest example of law enforcement’s concentrated effort.

Thirteen people have been prosecuted for either hate crimes or civil-rights violations since 1993, when a cross-burning in Palmdale began a string of racially motivated incidents, according to FBI supervisor Gary Auer.

“There are cases getting prosecuted that wouldn’t have been before,” Auer said, crediting the joint efforts of his agents, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the U.S. attorney’s office.

“It used to be that federal investigators worked with federal prosecutors and local investigators worked with local prosecutors and a great deal of important information was never exchanged.”

Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies maintain that the Antelope Valley has no more hate crimes than other areas.

“Look at the San Fernando Valley and we really don’t have anything like what they’re experiencing,” Roberts said. “We want to be realistic and not stick our heads in the sand. If there is a problem we want to shut it down, but we just aren’t getting very many hate-crime reports.”

But federal authorities disagree, saying they are concerned that white supremacists are trying to frighten minorities away from the area’s working-class suburbs.

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Auer said he and other law enforcement authorities consider the January 1993 cross-burning a milestone because it was the first in a series of harassment complaints involving skinhead groups.

Two juveniles were arrested for the incident at the Palmdale home owned by a mixed-race couple, in which the wooden cross was set afire on the family’s front lawn, Auer said. Cross-burnings are a violation of federal and state civil-rights statutes. The FBI investigated, eventually turning its findings over to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.

The two teenagers, both members of a local white supremacist gang, were convicted in November 1993. Each was sentenced to a week in a juvenile detention center, six months probation and 80 hours of court-ordered community service.

In February 1995, three members of the skinhead gang “Nazi Lowriders” fired six shots at four African Americans who were sitting in a car outside Antelope Valley High School.

The three men, all from the Antelope Valley, were convicted of attempted murder and use of a firearm. They received extra-long prison sentences of 12, 18 and 20 years under the state’s 1987 Hate-Crime Enhancement law.

In May 1995, three months after the drive-by shooting, a woman was beaten by four skinheads who authorities say were trying to terrorize her and her husband into leaving the Palmdale mobile home park where they lived.

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The four juveniles were convicted and sentenced to six months probation and 225 hours of community service.

In one of the most high-profile cases, an African American teenager was beaten and stabbed by three skinheads while walking to class at Antelope Valley High school on Dec. 8, 1995.

The three youths pleaded guilty to assault, use of deadly weapon and violation of civil rights. They received sentences of eight and 10 years in state prison.

Danny Edward Williams, who was arrested Friday after he escaped from a minimum-security facility Jan. 18, will stand trial in March on charges that he and two juveniles allegedly beat and stabbed a 16-year-old African American last July in Lancaster.

Williams is also accused in a second beating on April 28, in which an African American was struck with a baseball bat.

Auer said FBI agents believe there are three white supremacist gangs operating in the Antelope Valley--the Nazi Lowriders, the Palmdale Peckerwoods and the Metal Minds--and that their activities are not coordinated. The only common thread, he and other authorities said, is their targeting of minorities.

“Most of these cases are random, unprovoked acts of violence against individuals who happened to be a different color than the perpetrators,” said Carla Arranaga, the deputy district attorney in charge of hate crimes.

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If a case doesn’t meet the federal criteria for civil-rights violations, or if it involves juveniles, it is usually turned over to Arranaga. She has more flexibility because of California’s hate crime laws and much greater freedom in prosecuting juveniles as adults, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Gennaco, Arranaga’s federal counterpart.

The U.S. attorney’s office only gets involved in a hate-crime investigation if a federally protected activity is involved. If an individual prevents someone from walking the streets or playing in a public park because of their race, they are violating that person’s civil rights and can be tried in a federal court.

“Our view is that when these cases are tried federally they are a greater deterrent,” said U.S. Atty. Nora Manella.

“I used to think that we had become a more progressive society,” she said. “But I’ve learned that there are places where bigotry and racism thrive.”