The Antelope Valley Times

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Palmdale officials investigating recent hate incident

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PALMDALE – As various local media sources have reported, fliers filled with racial slurs and threats against African Americans were found scattered in a Lancaster neighborhood earlier this month. Now similar fliers containing “disparaging racist comments and conditional serious threats,” have been found in Palmdale, according to a press release from the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station. Read it below:

Deputies from the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station are working closely with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate a recent hate incident.

The incident, reported on Friday, December 27, 2013, is similar to the recent Lancaster Sheriff’s Station case that occurred on Monday, December 16, 2013.

A number of 8 1/2 x 11 papers containing written racial epithets and general threats were found by a community member in the 900 block of East Avenue Q-4, Palmdale, scattered in the public roadway.

The comments and structure used on the papers were very similar to a recent incident reported in the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station area, reference report LAN-13-22016. The Lancaster incident was covered in detail in recent news reports.

In the Palmdale incident, reference report PLM-13-18373, the papers contained disparaging racist comments and conditional serious threats. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Hate Crimes Task Force is handling the ongoing investigation.

Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to contact the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station at (661) 272-2400 or Detective Melissa Sullivan of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Hate Crimes Task Force at (661) 940-3857.

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Filed Under: Crime/ Safety

9 comments for "Palmdale officials investigating recent hate incident"

  1. This looks like the handiwork of one or two clowns. While most of it is protected under freedom of speech, the threats are not. Sadly all the news reports showed was a heavily censored version so it is hard to know what the exact threat was.

    I think all this is directed at gang members, but the clowns behind it didn’t express themselves clearly.

    I think the sole purpose of this was to get media attention and they succeeded. There is no organization behind this and nobody is in real danger. All they wanted to do is stir the pot.

  2. The racists leaving comments here are such cowards, hiding behind fake names and fliers. TAKE YOUR HOODS OFF COWARDS, SHOW YOURSELVES!!!

    • What strikes you as racist in the comments? Also, is your full name Tak? No last name? I think Tak Ironic would be a good name for you.

  3. I don’t know what the incident alluded to was, but am pretty sure that fliers, no matter how annoying, disqusting, etc… would fall under protected speech. I suppose there are limits to speech, but would be curious to know what crime the police intend to charge the culprits with.

    • Maybe littering. Dependent upon content, possibly hate speech. Everything is against the law in California now.

    • Freedom of Speech is not as free as one might think. This would probably fall under something like Hate Speech:

      “Hate speech is a communication that carries no meaning other than the expression of hatred for some group, especially in circumstances in which the communication is likely to provoke violence. It is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and the like. Hate speech can be any form of expression regarded as offensive to racial, ethnic and religious groups and other discrete minorities or to women.”

      Hate crimes in general carry a heavier penalty as well.