Parents allege hate crime
Laguna couple whose son is black speak out after a watermelon is tossed at their home.
By Bryce Alderton
Parents of a Laguna Beach High School student said their son was the target of a hate crime two days after Christmas when a watermelon was tossed toward the family’s home and splattered on the driveway.
“I know what throwing a watermelon at a person who is black is designed to connote,” said the father, Maurice Possley.
Possley, a former reporter and editor with the Chicago Tribune, and his wife, Cathleen Falsani, also a journalist, are white. They said their 17-year-old adopted son, Vasco, was targeted because he is black.
The Tribune is owned by the Los Angeles Times’ parent company.
Laguna Beach police, who received the complaint, said they were investigating five juveniles with possible connections to the Dec. 27 incident.
The Laguna Beach Unified School District sent a letter to families and staff Friday saying that high school administrators were notified of the complaint by police.
The district letter indicated, and police later confirmed, that the suspects were Laguna students.
The family was getting ready to eat dinner shortly before 9 o’clock that night, Possley said, when he heard something.
“They were calling Vasco by name, and as I headed to the door, there was a thud,” Possley said.
Possley said he noticed that one of the pieces of watermelon had a sticker on it showing the brand. He typed the brand name into Google and discovered a distributor.
Possley said Falsani called a local grocery store to see if any employees remembered juveniles purchasing the fruit.
One employee did. Meanwhile, a neighbor’s security camera had captured a truck, believed to be the getaway vehicle, in front of Possley’s house, he said.
In a written statement, Possley said he and Falsani hoped to raise awareness so as to prevent other such incidents.
“We are not here to talk about retribution or to paint ourselves or our son as victims,” Possley said. “We are here to let the people of Laguna Beach know the facts of what happened to us and call upon everyone to stand together to send a clear, articulate message that this kind of hateful act is not tolerated in Laguna Beach.”
The district’s letter offered the same sort of plea for tolerance.
“As a school district, we continue to work on teaching cultural proficiency, including self-awareness of how each student’s ethnicity, culture and life experiences may impact others,” it said.
bryce.alderton@latimes.com
Alderton writes for Times Community News.

The Grand Dragon Elect "Trumpenstein" has dared to attack John Lewis A Civil Rights Icon much to the glee of unwashed bigots who never liked the ideal of Civil Rights! How dare this Nigra question the legitimacy of our Lord and Savior "The Donald" Will you bow to this monstrous Idol Christian Soldier created by the right?

The latest Trump attack was the height of thin-skinned, foolish arrogance. The absolute worst thing that Trump could have done in response to Lewis’s statements was to attack a national icon. Millions of Americans already think that the next president is a racist. Trump did nothing to dispel this notion by attacking Lewis over crime.

Donald Trump knows nothing about John Lewis or his district, and his attack on Lewis only served to make Trump look like a fool and heighten suspicions over why the president-elect is so sensitive about Russia.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/14/trump-fool-attacking-civil-rights-legend-john-lewis.html

I'm kool today.....going on a nastysaltine-free diet today..reflecting on how far we've come and how far we will still go.....Pres Obama will take community organizing on a national, grass-roots level and will interpret and articulate policy for many.....that Brother is a Professor...piece of cake for him.....Trump has been a serious wake-up call....but I enjoyed the hell out of the last 8 years, both politically and socially...Pres. Obama is what a brother needs to be......a Scholar and a G..........