Slurs over police radio serves as reminder of city’s past

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Until investigators find who is responsible for

racial slurs spoken over a police radio frequency last week, a “cloud” of

suspicion will hang over the Huntington Beach Police Department,

reminding many locals of the town’s intolerant past, a city councilwoman

said.

“This is something we’ve worked very hard to rid our community of,” said

Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff, who also sits on the Human Relations Task

Force.

The task force, a city-sponsored volunteer group, was formed soon after

the infamous February 1996 attack on American Indian George Mondragon by

skinheads near the pier. Erik Roy Anderson, a 20-year-old local, stabbed

the San Bernardino resident 28 times in the head and upper body. After

the attempted murder, another resident, Shannon Dewayne Martin, 23,

helped hide the knife.

The task force’s goal was simple, said current chairman Fred Provencher.

“We didn’t want to be considered the skinhead capital of the world,” he

said. “And we didn’t think we were.”

But the stabbing wasn’t the only incident tarnishing the city’s

reputation.

In the 1980s, police battled white supremacist gangs with names such as

the Huntington Beach Skins, Huntington Beach Hard Core and Orange County

Crew. The gangs had about 50 members, with 50 more skinheads roaming the

streets with no affiliation, according to a police report issued in

November 1989. Their activities ranged from unprovoked attacks on

minorities to spraying swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti Downtown and

in shopping centers, police said at the time. They even held marches at

Central Park. Downtown was considered one of the their favorite hangouts.

The hate simmered throughout the early ‘90s before boiling over in

September 1994, when resident Vernon Windell Flourney, an African

American, was shot as he was walking down Beach Boulevard. He stumbled

into a McDonald’s before collapsing dead in front of gasping customers.

Two residents -- Jonathan Russell Kennedy, 19, and a 17-year-old juvenile

-- were charged with the racially motivated slaying.

The city has made significant progress in the fight against intolerance,

but hate still persists, Provencher said.

“It would be wonderful if I could say no, [that hate does not exist],” he

said.

Huntington Beach, though, isn’t the only city to grapple with this

“cancer,” Dettloff said.

According to the Orange County Human Relations Commission, the county had

a total of 183 hate incidents in 1996, with 12 of those in the city. For

1997, the county had 145, with the city accounting for nine. Last year

saw 169 countywide, with 19 occurring here. This year’s numbers are not

available yet, said Rusty Kennedy, the commission’s executive director.

An “incident” includes not just crimes but name-calling and hate

literature, he said.

Despite occasional “aberrations,” Dettloff takes solace in the fact that

most residents value diversity, saying “99.9% of our population simply

finds [racism] totally unacceptable, and they would stand up to what’s

right.”

And she believes the Police Department will be cleared of any suspicion.

In the past, the police have shown “great sensitivity,” she said.

In the end, the best way to beat racism is to focus on our similarities

instead of dwelling on our differences, Provencher said. But educating

people takes time.

“What we’ve come to learn is that you make small steps,” he said.

QUESTION

RACIAL TOLERANCE?

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