Hate Graffiti Hits Group Homes

Racist and anti-woman graffiti was spray-painted on two Costa Mesa homes for women with substance abuse problems this weekend, authorities said.

One of the homes was previously used as a crack house by a white supremacist group, police and an administrator of the home said.

Yellowstone West on Boston Way had a racist slur sprayed on the door, as well as a swastika and two lightning bolts symbolic of the Nazis, said Costa Mesa police Lt. Tom Curtis. The damage was done sometime between 10:30 p.m. Friday and 8:00 a.m. Saturday.

At another Yellowstone house, on East Bay Street, someone spray-painted hate graffiti and damaged two vehicles between 8 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

A 1988 Dodge van was defaced with the words “upper white trash” and an anarchy symbol, and the tires were slashed on the driver’s side.

A 1988 Plymouth Reliant had curses against women scrawled across the door in blue paint, Curtis said.

Honey Thames, the founder and chief executive officer for the Yellowstone homes, said that her 10-day detoxification houses for women have never been vandalized before. However, she has had problems in the past at the East Bay Street home, she said.

Thames said her program moved into the East Bay Street house in June 1998 after the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist group, had used it as a drug den that the group called “The Shooting Gallery.”

Thames said the police are now checking to see if there is any connection between those former threats and this weekend’s vandalism.

Syringes used to inject illegal drugs were tucked under the bathroom tile, said one resident, who did not want to give her name.

“We did take over a crack house, and there were some threats by the self-proclaimed Aryan Brotherhood [who had lived there], who subsequently went to jail,” Thames said.

Thames says she is not taking the recent hateful attack lightly. The two African-American women in the program are being carefully watched over.

“The problem is we want to be a quiet and good neighbor, but on the other hand we’ve got to draw the line, and the line is that the women have to be safe,” Thames said.

Bill Ashcroft, who lives next door to the house on East Bay Street, said he was surprised and saddened to hear of the vandalism.

He doesn’t want his new neighbors to move anywhere because of this incident.

“They’re all ladies, and it’s been quite quiet,” Ashcroft said.

In another hate graffiti incident last Sunday, Raphael Pazo of Anaheim awoke to find anti-Semitic slurs spray-painted in black on his front door, garage and car.

The father of four who lives near the Temple Beth Emet said the day, which was a Jewish holiday, was darkened by the incident.