Church Defaced, Spirits Marred

It seems a safe guess that it was just a few punks who spray-painted the swastikas and other racist symbols Saturday night on the windows and walls at the Holy Faith Korean Presbyterian Church in Cypress. An isolated incident that doesn’t reflect the community’s values.

Even so, when it happens to you, it lets you know the stark reality that bigotry can pop up just about anywhere. Imagine how the church’s parishioners felt when they arrived for worship Sunday morning to face that kind of welcome.

The city of Cypress took quick steps to get the graffiti removed Monday morning. But it’s harder to eliminate the stain of distrust something like that leaves.

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, points out that the damage done is always much greater than the crime itself. A few swastikas may be just vandalism, their impact can permeate a whole neighborhood. “One of the most devastating aspects of a hate crime is that its intent is to terrorize an entire community,” Kennedy said.

The first responses are a mix of anger, sadness, but also confusion.

“Whenever we interview victims of hate crimes, they always ask, ‘Why me? What did I do?’ ” Kennedy said. “We always have to tell them, ‘It wasn’t you. These hoodlums just used you to spread their act of terror.’ ”

Cypress officials were clearly dismayed that such an ugly incident occurred in their city.

“It was a highly negative act that we all regret,” said Cypress City Councilwoman Anna Piercy. “But it was an act of the negative fringe.”

And if the police are correct in their suspicions, it wasn’t even a fringe that comes from Cypress.

The small Korean American church, in the 6200 block of Ball Road, happens to be next to a shopping center with a pool hall, the Cypress House of Billiards. Two weeks ago, an incident broke out in front of the pool hall, where police say a group of skinheads with knives attacked a Latino man and two people with him. Seven people have been jailed in that incident and accused of assault.

It started, Kennedy said, when the group of skinheads saw a black man and a white woman together and tried to chase them down. Unsuccessful, they apparently went looking for anyone else at random to unleash their frustrations upon. That’s when they came across the Latino man fixing his car.

Chris Harms, a manager at the pool hall, said the skinhead group had come into his place just shortly before.

“I suspected trouble,” he said. “But they left without doing anything. Next thing I know, all hell is breaking loose in the parking lot.”

Five were arrested at the scene, two were tracked down and arrested later in Arizona.

The Cypress police suspect that the Holy Faith Korean Presbyterian Church got hit as a retaliation for those arrests.

On one front window, in letters three-feet high, was a swastika, and on another were the letters “SWP” for “supreme white person” or “white power.”

But there was other graffiti on the side of the church, and dozens of various symbols all over the walls and door on the back of the church.

The Korean American parishioners had only taken over the building, a former health club, about a year ago, and have been renovating it since. Much of it had been freshly painted.

The minister, the Rev. Peter Kim, chose not to mention the incident in his Sunday sermon because he wanted time to reflect on what his response should be. Some in the congregation were angry, others indicated the guilty parties need forgiveness.

But no matter how isolated this may be, it’s still happening in Orange County. And it reflects that we’ve still got work to do in ridding ourselves of these repulsive acts.

Wendy Yoo, president of the Korean American Assn., said she believes most Korean Americans recognize that such incidents are the work of just a few. But Koo Oh, president of the Korean American Federation of Orange County, said reaction from Korean Americans will be much stronger once the Cypress incident is written about in Korean-language newspapers.

“This is a great country because so many of us from different cultures have learned to get along together,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean these things aren’t upsetting.”

Let’s hope that Cypress gets upset enough to extend some type of message to the people at the Holy Faith church. To let them know that others are also offended by what they had to endure at Sunday worship.

One positive step, and a good example for all of us, comes from the county’s Human Relations Commission. It makes a point to contact all hate crime victims immediately. Said Kennedy: “We just want to let them know that the community is behind them.”

Most of the commission’s work is geared toward prevention, with school programs aimed at diffusing prejudicial attitudes.

“Unfortunately, we never know when we’re going to have to be reactive,” he said. “Because things like this keep happening.”

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry .hicks@latimes.com