Reports of 3 Racist Incidents Are Probed in Antelope Valley

Authorities are investigating three hate-related incidents reported in the Antelope Valley over the weekend.

Saturday morning, a black family in Palmdale found racial slurs and swastikas written in chalk on the driveway of their house in the 37900 block of Rose Marie Street, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Palmdale station. The family also discovered a slashed tire and a slash in a car’s convertible top.

That afternoon at Lancaster City Park, just after hundreds of community members attended a picnic celebrating the community’s ethnic and cultural diversity, sheriff’s deputies discovered a large swastika burned into the grass with what appeared to be chemicals.

The swastika, measuring about 6 feet across, was found about 3 p.m., said Lt. Richard Lichten of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lancaster station.

“I’m annoyed that it happened in the proximity of our heritage picnic,” said Lancaster Mayor Frank C. Roberts, who called the annual event, which offered food, prayers and performances by 18 ethnic or religious groups, “an outpouring of love.”

Roberts added that hate incidents and hate crimes are not commonplace in the Antelope Valley. “If you look at the hate crime records, you’ll find that our hate activity statistics are lower than the rest of L.A.,” Roberts said.

According to the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, the San Fernando Valley in 1998 had more hate crimes per capita than the Antelope Valley.

The other incident occurred at 1:50 a.m. Saturday, when a 33-year-old white woman drove into a parking lot of a nightclub in the 45200 block of 10th Street West in Lancaster and was confronted by a large group of black men and women, Lichten said. The woman told police that one of the women in the parking lot shouted a racial slur at her and scratched her car with keys.

No suspects have been arrested in any of the incidents, and authorities said they did not know if any were related.