Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Saturday, August 23, 2008.

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Voting unanimously, the City Council has agreed to appoint Sean Donlon, Thomas “Randy” Hall, Cassandra Harvey, Darren Parker, Courtney Stallworth and Timothy Wiley to a new commission created to develop architectural guidelines for future residential, commercial and industrial construction in the city.

Besides recommending new aesthetic standards, the commission will resolve planning conflicts between developers and city staff members.

A seventh nominee for the commission, Richard Cook, declined appointment because of his professional obligations and asked that his wife be considered in his place.

Since his wife was not scheduled for nomination, the council took no action during the Aug. 12 on filling the seventh seat on the panel.

Commission members were directed to set a date for the panel’s first meeting, where they will seat officers and establish a regular meeting schedule.

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Tags: Architecture, City of Lancaster, Community, Darren Parker, Design // Add Comment »

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Tuesday, July 29, 2008.

By DAISY RATZLAFF
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Lancaster man’s pickup truck was vandalized twice over the weekend in an apparent hate crime that caused an estimated $9,000 worth of damage, officials said.

Obscenities and a racial slur were scratched and marked Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon on the front, back and sides of a 2007 pickup truck parked in a westside home driveway.

“The first incident was done early Saturday morning. They came and scratched my truck so bad it created $6,000 worth of damage,” said the man, a retiree, who asked not to be identified.

“And then they came back on Sunday in broad daylight and did another $3,000 worth of damage by scratching more words into the side of my truck. It is so bad that it got to the metal part of the truck.”

The Lancaster man, who has lived in the Antelope Valley since 1981, said he had never experienced such a crime that hit so close to home.

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Tags: Graffiti, Hate, Vandalism // Add Comment »

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Tuesday, July 29, 2008.

By JAMES RUFUS KOREN
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Hate crimes in the Antelope Valley and Los Angeles County spiked in 2007, with experts saying frustration over a worsening economy might be a factor.

The Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission reported 763 hate crimes in 2007, a 28% increase over the 594 reported in 2006.

“We are seeing the increases across the board and in a variety of geographical places,” said Robin Toma, executive director of the human relations commission. “We’re digging deeper to understand what (the cause of the increase) could be.”

The Antelope Valley continued to be a hotbed for hate crimes in 2007, with 39 reported crimes, up from 17 the year before. Per capita, that gives the Valley a higher rate of hate crimes than the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and South Los Angeles. Only the area that contains downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood and East Los Angeles had a higher rate of hate crimes than the Valley, though the Valley’s per capita rate is overstated because the report used 2000 population figures.

Darren Parker, president of the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force, said the Valley’s seemingly high number of reported hate crimes is evidence of zealous reporting of possible hate crimes, not of an inordinate number of such crimes.

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This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Sunday, July 20, 2008.

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The mayor is expected Tuesday to identify the people he wants the City Council to approve for positions on a new Architectural and Design Planning Commission.

The commission will be assigned the task of setting new aesthetic design standards for homes and buildings set for construction in the city.

Creation of the A&D commission was proposed by Mayor R. Rex Parris shortly after his election in April.

A past member of the primary Planning Commission, Parris said he considered the panel too busy with development plans and land-use matters to focus on issues related to aesthetics and design.

“I think it’s too late for us to do a ‘theme’ for the city, like Santa Barbara has a Spanish theme. But it’s not too late for us to do themes for (specific) areas of the city,” Parris said in May. “Now what we have is this hodge-podge of boxes in the city of Lancaster, and I want to see that changed.

“I want this (new) commission to come up with clear design standards so that when you cross Avenue M (from Palmdale), you know you’re in a new city,” he said.

“There is no reason for us to look the way we look, and I think if we had a separate planning commission to deal with those issues, it would be beneficial for all of us.”

At the council’s July 8 meeting, the mayor identified Darren Parker as one of the residents he intended to appoint, but said he had yet to decide on the rest of the slate.

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Tags: Architecture, City of Lancaster, Darren Parker, Design, Planning // Add Comment »

CLEANING UP - Contract worker Carmen Lopez paints over graffiti Tuesday on one of two houses on Armfield Avenue off of Rancho Vista Boulevard (Avenue P) in Palmdale. Sheriff’s officials are classifying the vandalism as a hate crime due to the racial content of the graffiti. EVELYN KRISTO/Valley Press

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Wednesday, July 9, 2008.

By DAISY RATZLAFF
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Two westside homes were vandalized with graffiti overnight Monday in an apparent hate crime, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

Words of hate and racial slurs covered the front walls of the two vacant homes on Armfield Avenue off of Rancho Vista Boulevard (Avenue P), across from the Antelope Valley Mall.

One of the homes had recently been vacated, neighbor Prista Wood said.

“We had someone live in the orange house. He was black and she was Iranian, but you never saw them. And the people that rented it after them were black. They moved out a couple months ago,” Wood said. “And the other people in the other (vacant) home just moved out last Sunday, but they were white.”

The two homes are separated by a third house, authorities aid.

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Tags: Graffiti, Hate, Vandalism // Add Comment »

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Friday, June 20, 2008.

By JULIE DRAKE
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley YouthBuild offers an alternate route to success for students who found achieving in a public school difficult.

The program graduated 10 students in a ceremony Wednesday at First Assembly of God’s AV Champions Center.

“I would say it was an easy journey, but it was not,” Executive Director Rossie Johnson said. “It’s been a lot of hard effort, a lot of sweat, a lot of motivation.”

Johnson said the inspiration went both ways, from the students to him and vice versa.

“Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t succeed,” he told the students.

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Tags: AV YouthBuild Program, Community, Darren Parker, Education // Add Comment »

HATE CRIME? - The windows in the back of Debbie Phillips’ Lancaster home show the graffiti left by an unknown person Wednesday night. Phillips said she notified the AV Human Relations Task Force and the American Civil Liberties Union about the incident, but because the graffiti didn’t directly mention religion, Task Force President Darren Parker said he doesn’t know if the incident can be categorized as a hate crime. EVELYN KRISTO/Valley Press

Woman protested City Hall posting ‘In God We Trust’

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Friday, May 30, 2008.

By VERONICA ROCHA
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Lancaster woman’s home was vandalized overnight Wednesday with “In God We Trust or ?” painted across her windows in what she believes is retaliation for speaking out against placing a similar phrase in City Council chambers.

Debbie Phillips said she spotted the bold, black lettering on two windows and a sliding glass door - marked by someone who entered her fenced backyard - after she woke up Thursday morning.

“I feel like somebody came in my home and invaded my space,” Phillips said.

Phillips said she notified the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force, which investigates hate crimes, and the American Civil Liberties Union about the incident.

“I want this to be noted in the crime rate as a hate crime,” she said.

Task Force President Darren Parker said the group is investigating whether Thursday’s vandalism qualified as a hate crime.

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Tags: Darren Parker, Graffiti, Religion, Task Force, Vandalism // Add Comment »

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Wednesday, May 21, 2008.

By JULIE DRAKE
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Members of the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force will have to wait at least one more month to hear an official response from Eastside Union School District trustees regarding alleged sexist and racist remarks from one board member to another.

In April, an unidentified Eastside trustee complained to the task force that a fellow trustee referred to female trustees as “girls” who follow his directions and also said African Americans are only good at sports, according to a task force official.

After an investigation, task force President Darren Parker said the group would recommend Eastside trustees undergo diversity and sensitivity training. He also asked that trustees attend Monday’s meeting to report what measures the board took to address the complaints.

Eastside President J. Altin Ginn was expected at Monday’s meeting, but he was in Sacramento on a lobbying trip, Parker said.

“Unfortunately, most of the members of the board could not be with us tonight,” he said. “They made every effort to try to get down here, at least most of the members that were absent.”

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Tags: Diversity, Education, Sexism // Add Comment »