TimesOC: Fliers promoting hate again litter Huntington Beach yards

"Sign up for our TimesOC newsletter" and the L.A. Times logo over the Huntington Beach Pier at sunset.
TimesOC, a newsletter about Orange County, is published Wednesdays and Fridays.
(Los Angeles Times)
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Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Feb. 16. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you today’s TimesOC newsletter with the latest roundup of news and events.

Last spring, Daily Pilot staff reported that Ku Klux Klan propaganda was discovered outside homes in Newport Beach, and a flier announcing plans for a “White Lives Matter” rally in Huntington Beach put local city officials on alert regarding potentially escalating white nationalist sentiment.

Those acts were swiftly denounced by civic leaders, and the planned supremacist rally, what had been advertised as a national movement, essentially sputtered out. A counterprotest that drew a crowd of about 500 may have dampened the haters’ spirits that week.

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In the fall, the Orange County Human Relations Commission put out its annual report that revealed hate crimes and incidents in Orange County rose to historic levels in 2020 amid the pandemic.

Yesterday morning, a neighborhood near Bushard Street and Hamilton Avenue in Huntington Beach was littered with two-sided antisemitic fliers. The hate speech continues, although whoever was behind the latest drop took pains to print at the bottom of the offensive fliers that they were delivered “randomly and without malicious intent.” Really.

The fliers make claims attaching Jewish members of the Biden administration to the coronavirus pandemic and state that Jews are “celebrating their role in COVID,” my colleague Matt Szabo reported.

“HBPD is investigating, and they’ve already reached out to every impacted resident,” city spokeswoman Jennifer Carey told Szabo yesterday afternoon. “They’ve interviewed some and are waiting to hear back from others, but detectives are investigating. They’ve notified our Human Relations Committee, which works hand-in-hand with HBPD, as well as the county of Orange, in investigating potential hate crimes.”

In case you happen to have any information on this latest incident, Szabo reports that investigators would welcome a call at (714) 960-8811.

Fliers with antisemitic messages were found outside several homes in a Huntington Beach neighborhood.
Fliers with antisemitic messages were found outside several homes in a Huntington Beach neighborhood Tuesday morning.
(Anonymous Hand-in)

MORE NEWS

— Deputy Eduardo Duran of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, who fatally shot an unarmed homeless Black man will not face criminal charges, the district attorney’s office announced Friday. Duran killed 42-year-old Kurt Reinhold in 2020 after stopping him on suspicion of jaywalking in San Clemente. An investigation determined Reinhold had grabbed Duran’s partner’s gun in its holster during a scuffle and was shot after he continued to resist arrest and kept his hand on the other officer’s gun.

— Authorities announced yesterday the results of a statewide crackdown on human trafficking that resulted in nearly 500 arrests and more than 80 sex workers being helped. My colleague Alene Tchekmedyian reported the story, which includes mention of an associated arrest in Costa Mesa, where investigators set up a date online with a woman. They conducted a traffic stop of the man who was driving her to the rendezvous and found an unregistered loaded handgun. They learned the woman had been working for that man for two years, beginning when she was still a minor.

— Starting tomorrow, vaccinated Disneyland guests will no longer be required to mask up at its indoor venues, although they will be expected to wear them in certain places, such as on shuttles, or when they are being given first-aid treatment. Visitors who are not vaccinated must wear a mask in shops and restaurants, as well as on rides, but Disney representatives said park employees will not be checking vaccination records.

— The average price of a gallon of regular gas in Orange County on Monday was $4.74, a record high, as geopolitical tensions send crude oil prices soaring at a time when more people are looking to hit the road. My colleague Leila Seidman has the full report, based on data from the Automobile Club of Southern California.

— Fourteen Costa Mesa apartment residents were displaced Tuesday by an early morning residential fire that broke out in a downstairs unit and destroyed two apartments before the blaze was extinguished, fire officials reported.

A three-alarm fire broke out shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday at the Mediterranean Village Apartments in Costa Mesa.
A three-alarm fire broke out shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday at the Mediterranean Village Apartments in Costa Mesa, fire officials reported.
(Courtesy of Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue)

LIFE & LEISURE

Carl Stewart’s Drums for Drummers, a Laguna Hills-based nonprofit, has delivered more than 150 drum sets to schools throughout Southern California. Tom Stewart, his wife, Kimberly Harding-Stewart, and volunteers track down used drum sets and ready them for donation to campuses. Last Saturday, about 20 teachers from Southland schools were invited to a warehouse in Santa Ana to choose from the free offerings available.

Mariel Teng, left, is helped by volunteer Wahid Shorter as he loads his truck with a donated drum set.
(Kevin Chang / Daily Pilot)

— Today marks the opening at the O.C. fairgrounds’ Heroes Hall exhibit, “Fighting for the Right to Fight: African American Experiences in World War II.” The traveling exhibit, on loan from the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, offers a collection of photos, artifacts and oral histories of Black Americans who served during the war. Read my colleague Sara Cardine’s story about the exhibit here.

 Bobby McDonald, president and CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County will emcee the exhibit's opening.
At the “Fighting for the Right to Fight” exhibit at Heroes Hall is Bobby McDonald, president and chief executive of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County.
(Spencer Grant)

SPORTS

— Great Park Ice in Irvine is where elite skaters including Olympics gold medalist Nathan Chen, train. The L.A. Times put the spotlight on this Orange County ice rink where champions are made.

Coach Vera Arutyunyan works with skater Sophia Carlos, 9, during practice at Great Park Ice.
Coach Vera Arutyunyan works with skater Sophia Carlos, 9, during practice at Great Park Ice on Feb. 10.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

— The city of Villa Park in Orange County may be small in terms of its population, but it boasts a big talent in Villa Park High School softball standout Sydney Somerndike, last year’s Gatorade player of the year. This season Somerndike, a senior who strikes out virtually everyone, according to her coach, is mentoring freshman pitcher Auddrey Lira, her heir apparent. L.A. Times sports columnist Eric Sondheimer profiles Somerndike and predicts she and her team could dominate the season.

Freshman pitcher Auddrey Lira, left, with Gatorade player of the year Sydney Somerndike of Villa Park.
(Terry Williams)

— Four former Angels players testified Tuesday to using oxycodone pills they received from Eric Kay, the team’s former communications director charged with giving Tyler Skaggs the drugs that resulted in his death in a suburban Dallas hotel room in July 2019.

Mike Trout, wearing a jersey to honor Tyler Skaggs, speaks to Eric Kay in the dugout  in July 2019.
Mike Trout, wearing a jersey to honor Tyler Skaggs, speaks to Eric Kay in the dugout before playing the Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium in July 2019.
(John McCoy / Getty Images)

STAY IN TOUCH

If you have a memory or story about Orange County, we would love to read it (please keep your submission to 100 words or less).

We want your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Send your memory of life in O.C., news tips or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com or benjamin.brazil@latimes.com.