Great Police Work Against Hate

Southern California owes deep appreciation to agents of the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the LAPD who arrested eight alleged skinheads--four young men, two women and two teen-agers--in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. In effect, they tried to start a race war, authorities say. The last thing Los Angeles needs is armed troublemakers trying to stir up more racial tension.

That very thought is appalling, though of course everything at this stage is nothing more than an allegation. Even so, the plot described by federal officials is reminiscent of troubles during the civil rights movement in the Deep South.

White supremacists purportedly planned to bomb the predominantly black First African Methodist Episcopal Church and murder its pastor, the Rev. Cecil Murray. Thousands of worshipers would have been in mortal danger during any of its three Sunday services. FAME, which is in the Mid-City section of Los Angeles, maintained a high national profile in the aftermath of the riots.

Bombing a black church to stop progress is not a new idea. Thirty years ago, soon after the historic March on Washington, white supremacists bombed a church in Birmingham, Ala., in an effort to check the momentum of civil rights, and four black girls were killed. Thanks to good law enforcement work such violence may have been prevented in Los Angeles.

FAME wasn’t the only target of the suspects, authorities said. They allegedly also wanted to kill Rodney G. King, the black motorist who became an international symbol of police brutality after an onlooker videotaped police officers beating him. He too owes thanks to the LAPD and the federal agents who risked their lives to protect him.

The suspects--linked to the so-called Church of the Creator, or White Aryan Resistance--are said to have targeted others including John Mack, a local civil rights leader who escorted President George Bush when he toured South-Central Los Angeles after the riots. The violent plot reportedly was also directed against a rabbi in Orange County.

Hate crimes are on the rise everywhere. Fortunately, it appears that in this case authorities moved before anyone was able to act out hatred.