Hate Crimes Ventura County

In the third attack on a Jewish temple this week, Temple Beth Torah in Ventura was defaced by a nocturnal vandal who spray-painted slurs linking Jews to the Antichrist. Maintenance manager Roque Sanchez, who lives on the grounds, said he was making his rounds in his truck about 10 p.m. Wednesday when he scared off a man painting black letters on the temple school. "When I put on my bright lights, there he was writing on the walls," Sanchez said Thursday.

The Camarillo City Council chose a new mayor one week early Wednesday, picking former Mayor Stanley J. Daily to succeed David M. Smith, who stepped down after completing a one-year term. Daily was chosen a week before the scheduled expiration of Smith's term so the new mayor can chair the hearings on the Sammis factory outlet center, which begin Wednesday. Daily, described as a "hands-on leader" by City Manager J. William Little, was the only council member nominated for mayor.

When Ventura County NAACP President John Hatcher emerged from his residence last week and discovered his garage door painted with racial slurs, he was sure the vandalism was no mere child's prank. "The hate is growing, particularly in Ventura County," said Hatcher, who says he has been targeted by racial bigots for years . "They say, 'You should go back to Africa. We want a pure white race.'

Racist and homophobic graffiti scrawled on the walls of a Thousand Oaks college campus. A red swastika painted on the front door of a Meiners Oaks temple. Three Ventura College basketball players--all black--injured during a brawl after a group of young whites allegedly yelled supremacist slogans. And a 26-year-old black man viciously attacked by a crowd of party-goers hurling beer bottles and racial slurs.

Despite a lower overall crime rate, Ventura County continues to grapple with its level of hate crimes, particularly in Ventura where police are trying to stem the growth of teenage white-power gangs. According to recent statistics from the California Department of Justice, 40 hate crimes were committed countywide against 52 victims last year.