Racist, Satanic Symbols Deface Church 2nd Time : Vandalism: Community groups express alarm over rising incidence of hate crime. Motives for the attacks on the inner-city house of worship are unknown.

For the second time in two weeks, vandals spray-painted racist and satanic symbols--including the letters “KKK”--on the facade of a church in a mostly black, inner-city neighborhood, drawing cries of outrage Tuesday over Los Angeles’ rising incidence of hate crime.

“It’s a shame and it’s very sad,” said John Colburn, 69, former pastor of the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship, United Church of Christ, as work crews prepared to sandblast the lettering and accompanying pentagrams--considered satanic symbols--from both sides of an arched entryway.

Additional graffiti, including the apparent nicknames of at least two vandals and an obscenity, “---- you,”marred the sidewalk and a wall above the church door.

No motive was clear for the two attacks, the most recent of which occurred early this week. However, the church, located near Western Avenue and the Santa Monica Freeway, is well known for community activism and was a frequent meeting place last year for blacks concerned about police brutality after the beating of motorist Rodney G. King, said the Rev. Madison T. Shockley II.

“At first, my thoughts went to the police brutality issue because the (King) trial has been going on,” Shockley said, noting that the church also has campaigned on many other issues, including abortion and the war with Iraq. “But when you get the satanic symbols mixed in . . . the question is, ‘Why this church?’ I don’t know whether the KKK has relationships with satanic cults or not, but in this case those symbols have been put together.”

Police were planning to talk to two witnesses--one who allegedly watched some of the spray-painting and another who claimed to have seen two men fleeing the scene, said Los Angeles Police Officer Cartez Curtiss. But aside from trying to direct more patrol cars into the secluded cul-de-sac where the large, Spanish-style church is located, there is not much more police can do, Curtiss said.

“It’s not clear at all” whether any suspects will be found, the officer said.

The most recent attack, with black and red paint, was denounced by several civil rights groups, including the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles. Representatives of those groups, who joined Shockley in a vocal press conference Tuesday, cited the racist graffiti as just one more instance in an alarming series of hate crimes aimed mostly at gay men, blacks and Jews.

“We must . . . expose these individuals who commit these hate crimes and let the good people of this city judge them for what they are--the lowest form of human existence,” said Joe Hicks, executive director of the SCLC, which has joined the other groups in creating a new alliance against hate crime. “We simply will not tolerate it,” Hicks said. “We must speak out and will speak out every time these kinds of things take place.”

Hate crimes in Los Angeles have reached record levels for seven consecutive years, numbering 672 last year, according to figures newly released by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission. Gays, blacks and Jews were victims in 60% of those incidents, the county said.

On March 20, the day those figures were published, Shockley’s 300-member church was hit with the first set of Ku Klux Klan initials and pentagrams. The pastor said he reported that crime only to police, not to the community.

“The first attack rather numbed me,” Shockley said. “I didn’t really know how to feel or respond. I said, this is just some kook, some isolated incident, and we painted over it.”

The second attack, however, made it clear the church was a target.

“When you look at this church and see the ugly markings on it, it hurts,” Shockley said. “It hurts you deeply if you care and love this church, and care and love the Lord.”

Shockley said he is concerned about further attacks. Carolyn Webb DeMacias, chief of staff for Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, said the city was providing the sandblasting and painting crews to remove the graffiti, and will do so “whenever it is necessary.”

Even so, church members said they were angry and sickened.

“Each generation thinks it’s seen the last of this kind of thing--and here it is,” former pastor Colburn said. “It’s a continual war against this kind of bigotry and stupidity.”