Posting of Racist Fliers Investigated

Police are investigating the posting of racist fliers in restrooms and an employee cafeteria at a Robinsons-May department store in North Hollywood.

“A hate incident report was made and we’re investigating it,” Det. Kevin Harley of the LAPD’s North Hollywood Division said Friday.

Prosecutors also are looking into whether distribution of the fliers qualifies as a hate crime. Police faxed copies to Carla M. Arranaga, head of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s hate crime division.

Arranaga was out of the office Friday, though an employee there acknowledged receipt of the fliers from police.

Some black employees who requested anonymity told the Associated Press they were outraged by fliers with an obscene picture that encourages the killing of blacks and includes a street address about a mile from the department store for more information.

“I saw at least 20 taped to the stalls and inside the cafeteria on the tables,” one of the employees said Thursday.

Robinsons-May spokesman Jim Watterson said Friday that store security officers found six fliers Wednesday night and reported them immediately to police.

“There were a couple in . . . our employee cafeteria and the others were found in one of the men’s restrooms on the lower level,” Watterson said. Although the lower floor houses the company’s collection department and employee cafeteria, nearby restrooms are accessible to the public.

“We consider this an isolated incident,” said Watterson, who works in a corporate office on an upper floor of the four-story building in the 6100 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. “We do not condone or tolerate racist behavior or attitudes in any way.”

According to Watterson, about one-third of the 300 employees working downstairs in the collection office are black and another third are Latino.

Despite the predominance of minorities, racism is “pushed under the table,” the anonymous employee said. “This is not the first time something like this has occurred.”

He and another employee complained in calls to the Associated Press that anti-black messages scrawled on men’s restroom stalls went untouched and that anti-Latino statements had remained for weeks before management had them painted over.

Watterson said Friday he had inspected the men’s room himself and found a racist etching with sexual content and had it removed Thursday night. He said he had no knowledge of any anti-Latino graffiti.