42nd Street Bagel Incident Sparks Letters to Local Paper

Race is a touchy subject, more so in Claremont than in many places. Just ask Scripps College Dean of Students Debra Wood. Or former Claremont McKenna College visiting professor of psychology Kerri Dunn. And then there was the matter of Pomona College's decision to not have the school's Alma Mater sung at this year's commencement.

And then, too, Claremont has had some real incidents of people being the targets of violence because of their race.

So, we intentionally held off commenting immediately on the the recent incident at the 42nd Street Bagel restaurant on Yale Ave. in the Claremont Village until we had more information.

We first learned of it when a letter appeared in the Claremont Courier from a person who said that the were in shock after "witnessing a blatant racist attack" there on an elderly "woman of color" by a "large, older man wearing a 'David Duke for President' T-shirt. The letter writer felt that the restaurant's employees seemed to favor the man rather than the woman.

After that first letter, the elderly woman involved in the incident wrote in to the Courier asking for a public apology from the store's manager. In response, the management of the 42nd Street Bagel wrote in to apologize.

There were also a number of letters in support of the woman, as well as calls to have the matter referred to the city's Committee on Human Relations, and other calls to boycott the bagel place for its coddling of the alleged racist and its insensitivity to the elderly woman.

Now other letters have appeared in the Courier saying that there was more to the story than was originally reported. The letters included one from the co-founder of 42nd Street Bagel and another from the David Duke-shirt wearing man at the center of the controversy. There were also some from a witness or two who supported the man's account of the matter.

If we can dig up some video, we'll try an delve more deeply into this bagel business later. For now, a word to the wise: in matters of race, use some commonsense. Claremont is usually better off counting to ten and then looking into things. We don't need another witch-hunt in Claremont. The obvious racially-motivated crimes, such as the stabbing of the African-American man by four men on their way to a White Power rally in Los Angeles are a completely different category than the hyped up melodrama of these other incidents, and they deserve to be treated differently.

Claremont Hate Crime Sentencing Delayed

The Daily Bulletin reported on March 10th that sentencing was delayed for three defendants convicted of a December, 2006, attack on a black man in a parking lot at Indian Hill Blvd. and San Jose Ave. in Claremont. The case is being heard in Pomona Superior Court.

The Bulletin article noted:

Anthony Allen, Joseph McCool, and Ryan White will face prison terms for the attack on Charles Washington when they return to the Pomona Superior Court in April.

The sentencing was continued because attorneys are filing a motion seeking a new trial, citing issues with jury selection and a request that the judge independently review the evidence as a 13th juror, said Gary Meastas, Allen's attorney.

Both Allen and White will go to court April 8. McCool will face his sentencing April 14.

The attack occurred after the defendants, who had stopped off in Claremont at a restaurant on their way to a white supremacists' rally in Westwood, confronted two black men. The attackers beat and repeatedly stabbed one of the victims with a hunting knife.

The other victim, Kavis Knight, told his story to the Claremont Courier's Tony Krickl in an article in the paper's 2/10/2007 edition:

Mr. Knight explained that initially there were two males and two females who approached them. The group was insulting him and his friend, 35-year-old Charles Washington of Pomona, and using racial slurs. As they were arguing and the tension continued to rise, about 6 more of the group’s friends came out of the Baker’s Square restaurant, located at the corner of Indian Hill Boulevard and San Jose Avenue. That’s when the argument escalated into a fight.

“They started coming with full force and fists and everything so I started fighting back. I was against the wall [of the liquor store] but my friend was still in the parking lot and wasn’t able to get away from them,” said Mr. Knight. “They were all in a circle around him. I saw him on the ground, and they were kicking him. I didn’t even see him get stabbed, but I realized he was really hurt when I tried to pick him up later and there was blood everywhere.”

By being against the wall of the liquor store, Mr. Knight said he was able to avoid being surrounded by his attackers and possibly end up with injuries as serious as his friend, who had been stabbed several times in the back and the leg. His friend needed to be airlifted to USC Medical Center in Los Angeles due to the seriousness of his injuries. Mr. Knight sustained injuries on his hands but did not seek medical treatment.

“I didn’t want to be in a situation that could get me in jail or where I could end up hurting somebody. I’m too old for that,” said Mr. Knight. “I used to live in the south side of Pomona and there was a fight every day down there. I was finally able to move my kids out of that environment and move up here to Claremont. I didn’t want this.”