Picnic Beating Arrests Are 2nd Iranian New Year Woe

Three men and two juveniles at an Iranian New Year picnic were arrested on suspicion of kicking and punching five revelers after telling them that they “didn’t belong there because they were white,” police said Monday.

The violence Sunday, which erupted in a crowd and was captured on a home video camera, heightened tension between local government officials organizing the event and local Iranians who have voiced their discontent with the way the festival has been run. But both sides emphasized Monday that the altercation was an isolated event that does not reflect the spirit of the festival, which has been held at William R. Mason Regional Park for at least 10 years without any arrests.

“When thousands of people gather in one place, it’s always difficult to manage the crowd,” said Fardad Fateri, who started organizing the festival in 1989 and has been involved ever since. “I was extremely surprised to hear about the arrests, because it is very out of place for such a thing to take place. . . . If it is racially motivated, it is isolated. It certainly doesn’t represent the intent or the spirit of this event.”

As the sun set on the new year’s festival about 7 p.m., police were summoned to the northwest side of the park’s lake, where a group of men, believed to be of Middle Eastern descent, had attacked a group of white revelers who were at the park with their Persian friends, said Lt. Tom Hume, spokesman for the Irvine Police Department. Passers-by tried to stop the fight, which momentarily broke up before the first group again pummeled two men from the second group with their fists and boots, Hume said.

“It doesn’t appear that [the victims] provoked the attack,” Hume said. “They were just walking through the park and were jumped from behind.”

One witness turned a video camera on the fracas, and the footage was “pretty graphic,” Hume said. Police did not release footage of the tape, but said it showed one victim on the ground as he was being kicked in the head by two people.

“One of the suspects broke his hand punching one of the victims,” Hume said.

Two of the five men attacked suffered multiple contusions and swelling of the head after being kicked, possibly with steel-toed boots, said Hume. None of the injuries was life-threatening, he said; the men were treated at the scene and released. The identities of the victims, who ranged in age from 19 to 22, were not released.

Police are asking prosecutors to file charges of civil rights violations against the suspects “due to the statement regarding the victims’ skin color, as well as the seriousness of the injuries,” said Sgt. Brian Clifton, who responded to the call Sunday.

Arrested were Jahad Afridi, 26, and Said Afridi, 23, brothers from Reseda, and Abedi Mohammed, 20, of Woodland Hills. All three were booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and threat to terrorize, police said. Two Los Angeles County juveniles, ages 15 and 16, also were arrested and were being held at Juvenile Hall. Their names are being withheld because they are younger than 18.

The adult suspects are scheduled to appear in court today in Newport Beach Municipal Court.

“It had been a fabulous day, everything ran very smoothly,” said Parker Hancock, supervising park ranger. “Then these young folks with their differences came in and caused problems for others in an otherwise nice family event.”

But for some in the Iranian American community, an undercurrent of anger had begun to sour the festival before the fight began. Mariam Khosravani, a community leader, said Sunday that officials were discouraging people from attending by enforcing strict parking rules and even suggesting that people celebrate elsewhere.

Miryam Ghodsian, 27, who attended the event, said city and county officials have turned the community celebration into a profit-making venture by selling spots to vendors, all the while not including the community itself in the organization.

“I’m pretty upset that this happened,” she said. “It takes a lot to make sure that everything goes OK, and I think had more people from the community been involved, it might have turned out better.”

Ghodsian also warned that the facts of the case must be examined closely before it can be dubbed “racially motivated.”

“Any time there’s an incident involving a minority community, the first thing police say is there’s some kind of racial overtones,” Ghodsian said. “Well, it may not be so. We need to be careful about putting some kind of racial overtones on it until we can get all the facts.”

Sunday’s festival, which drew about 11,000 people, is known as Sezdeh Bedar and is typically held 13 days after the Zoroastrian New Year. Iranians throughout the world meet in parks, beaches and other outdoor settings to celebrate, as it is considered bad luck to be indoors on that day.

Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea said Monday that the city has met with the Network of Iranian Professionals of Orange County in the past to make sure that leaders are included in the organization, but will work even harder at doing so next year. There have been minor flare-ups at past new year’s picnics, but none resulted in arrests, Shea and police said. And none were racially motivated, authorities said.

“I think we can work through these problems,” Shea said. “We want to nip them in the bud as soon as possible.”