U.S. Orders $12.5-million Payment to Victims of Racial Harassment

U.S. Department of Justice officials have demanded that Los Angeles County, Lancaster and Palmdale pay a total of $12.5 million to residents who the federal government found were victims of harassment and intimidation in the Antelope Valley.

The demand coincides with last week’s accusation by the Justice Department that Antelope Valley authorities conducted a systematic effort to discriminate against African Americans who received low-income subsidized housing and that sheriff’s deputies engaged in widespread unlawful searches of homes, improper detentions and unreasonable force.

Assistant County Counsel Roger Granbo, describing the Justice Department’s position, said the money would go to people whose civil rights were violated when deputies and housing inspectors visited their homes to check on whether they were complying with the Section 8 rental program requirements.

The payments would come from the two cities, the county’s Housing Authority and the Sheriff’s Department, he said. Granbo said he has already told federal officials that the county has no intention of paying its share of such a large amount of compensation.

If talks over the amount stall, the two sides could end up in court with the county disputing the breadth of the federal government’s findings. Granbo said the Justice Department has refused a request to turn over materials from its investigation, including a statistical report that it says shows blacks and Latinos were more likely than whites to be stopped or searched by deputies.

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He said the county has yet to agree on who, if anyone, would be compensated.

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said his city would refuse to pay what he said would amount to at least $10,000 and as much as $40,000 for each person with a claim.

“If the county wants to pay millions, let them do it, but Lancaster isn’t going to pay 10 cents of it,” Parris said.

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The nearly two-year federal civil rights investigation found support for allegations by Antelope Valley residents that black residents were targeted for surprise inspections of subsidized, or Section 8, housing. The checks, which were ostensibly to ensure that residents met the terms of their assistance, often involved deputies, some of them in full SWAT armor.

In a letter to Baca, U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas E. Perez wrote that the department’s activities in supporting tough compliance measures against those receiving subsidized housing vouchers were based on “an unsubstantiated and racially stereotypical correlation of race and crime.”

One sheriff’s supervisor, Perez said, told Justice Department officials that he thought all African Americans who recently moved to the Antelope Valley were gang members. {snip}

The conduct, he said, had serious consequences for residents, some of whom were forced from their homes and others who were prosecuted for administrative violations of their program contract.

In one case, a deputy sent photographs of luxury vehicles in the garage of one family receiving subsidized housing to an Antelope Valley-based “I Hate Section 8” Facebook page, federal officials found. The family’s home was subsequently vandalized, with “I hate Section 8” followed by a profanity and a racial slur. The family’s son had urine thrown at him by someone who shouted, “You dirty Section 8” and a racial slur. The family moved back to inner-city Los Angeles for fear of more harassment, Perez wrote.

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Parris, a veteran civil lawyer, said the Justice Department’s accusations amount to nothing but hot air. “I have yet to see anything actionable In Lancaster,” he said. “I believe the Justice Department is trying to justify its investigation. And, to be frank, it is not there.”

Parris said the federal government has done nothing to help reduce gang violence in his city and he credited Lancaster’s approach to gangs, subsidized housing and other social issues with helping to reduce crime.