Cypress Tackles Hate

When Huntington Beach became the scene of racial violence and a gathering place for skinheads several years ago, the city did more than just complain. Elected officials and police made it clear that racism and anti-Semitism were not acceptable. They held conferences and public forums to educate residents.

Now the Orange County community of Cypress is having problems with racist incidents. Like Huntington Beach, city officials are doing what they can to decry the incidents and create a climate where there will be no more such trouble.

Last week two teenagers yelled racial slurs at a young Latino and his white friend outside a pizza parlor. Then the youths attacked the pair. Police made two arrests in the case and said one of the suspects, who does not live in Cypress, is a member of an Orange County white supremacist gang.

Last August gang members with shaved heads and swastika tattoos beat a Latino man with a beer bottle and stabbed two of his friends outside a Cypress pool hall. That was followed by vandals spray-painting swastikas on a synagogue and a white supremacist slogan on a Presbyterian church that has a Korean congregation. At Cypress College last month, stickers with white supremacy slogans were affixed to a Latino student group’s fliers.

The executive director of the county’s Human Relations Commission, Rusty Kennedy, said the Cypress Police Department “has done all the right things” in trying to short-circuit further incidents. That includes publicizing the attacks and vandalism and working with community groups to stop recurrences.

A human relations expert for the commission said Cypress College also was handling its incident well. A student group is planning a brochure on hate crimes, and a campus forum is to be held in the next few weeks.

Despite good efforts by many groups in the county in recent years to teach that the presence of diverse groups is a strength, not a cause for fear, racial and ethnic hatred can crop up in any community. Huntington Beach and Cypress have not been the only cities scarred by such incidents. But cities that show they will take steps to fight hate crimes and foster understanding can focus better on isolated incidents and nurture community acceptance.