LANCASTER, Calif. -- Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force officials are asking for the assistance of federal agencies to investigate an incident between members of two religious organizations -- one Christian, one pagan.
The U.S. Attorney General's Hate Crime Task Force and the FBI have been contacted to investigate the incident because it doesn't qualify as a hate crime under state law.
"We won't tolerate their actions at all," said Human Relations Task Force President Darren Parker, referring to a group that reportedly interfered with a religious ceremony. "We are going to get these people no matter what."
The incident occurred March 20 as more than 50 people gathered in the parking lot behind the Witch's Grove, a Lancaster Boulevard shop that sells incenses, oils, candles and books on witchcraft and the Wiccan religion, to celebrate the renaming of the store, formerly the Witch's Brew, and the spring equinox.
Before they could begin their ritual, several carloads of people drove up. The occupants begin walking around the group reading Bible verses and blaring Christian rock music, witnesses said.
At one point, one witness said, a man screamed Bible verses into the face of a 14-year-old boy taking part in the ritual while pushing into him.
Participants in the ritual jotted down license plate numbers and called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. A deputy arrived to take a report about four hours later, they said. Store owner Cynida Riker found that five of the six cars had been rented. The protesters were using two-way radios to communicate, she said.
"What worries me the most is that they were so organized," Riker said. "This was not a spur of the moment thing."
Sheriff's officials say the case was handed over to their Hate Crime Task Force and the deputy district attorney who specializes in hate crimes, but both concluded the incident was not a hate crime.
Sheriff Hate Crime Task Force officials did not return telephone calls.
Parker said the language of the state hate crime law indicates specific places of worship as sites that a hate crime case could be filed on. However, since the Spring Equinox service was in a business parking lot, the law does not designate it as a place of worship.
"What (protesters) did was no different than if they did it at a synagogue or any other church," Parker said. "We may have to rewrite the verbiage of the bill to include those services."
After hate crime investigators returned authority over the case to the Lancaster sheriff's station, local investigators sent the case to the District Attorney's Office as a disturbing the peace incident. Local prosecutors declined to file charges.
"It was just two different groups in a public place exercising their First Amendment rights and voicing their beliefs," said John Portillo, head of the District Attorney's Office in Lancaster.
The FBI and the Attorney General's Hate Crime Task Force may be able to follow up on the case as a hate crime or civil rights violation because their hate-crime guidelines are broader than those of local law-enforcement agencies, Parker said.
Participants in the ceremony say they are trying to work with the Sheriff's Department to prevent future problems.
"This whole thing could have been taken care of if it had not taken (deputies) over four hours to get here," Riker said. "They could have seen for themselves what was going on. We don't want problems with the Sheriff's Department, we want to work with them so this doesn't happen again. They have been very supportive of us but this whole thing is getting confusing."
Sheriff's official, however, said the initial call did not report that a religious ceremony was being disrupted. Deputies said they were told only that a "gathering" was being interrupted by loud music and loud people.
"If they would have told the operator that they were conducting a religious service that was being interrupted it would been handled with a higher priority," said Deputy Donald Rubio of the Lancaster sheriff's station. "Instead it goes out as a disturbing the peace and we have to handle calls by priority."
Riker said she has experienced similar incidents before and after the protesters. Teen-agers in a car drove past the store and yelled "burn witch, burn" she said.
People sometimes push open the shop door, say "God loves you" and leave, she said.
"I just say: And the Goddess you," Riker said. "If these people were educated about who we are and what we believe rather than relying on movies and television, they would be a lot more accepting or at least tolerant. We're not asking them to believe what we believe. All we want is tolerance. We would never think of interrupting one of their services just because we don't agree."