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Originally published in the New York Times on March 26, 2005 [here]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MURRIETA, Calif., March 26 (AP) - Like thousands of other Californians, Crystal Farr moved her family to the inland suburbs of Los Angeles to live in housing less expensive than what she could find along the coast.

She says she is now questioning the wisdom of the move after the arrest of dozens of accused white supremacists and a number of racially charged incidents, including an attack on her teenage son.

Ms. Farr, who is black, said the arrests added to her feeling that not everyone is welcome in the region. "I like the community, but all this has made me have second thoughts," she said. "It's taken its toll on our family."

Other families also say they feel uneasy and would move if they could afford housing elsewhere, said Loraine Watts, president of the N.A.A.C.P. chapter in nearby Lake Elsinore.

Law enforcement officials say it is unfair to characterize Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, a region of more than three million people, as a racist bastion. But as hate crimes dropped 10 percent statewide from 2002 to 2003, the two counties had a combined increase of 19 percent, the California attorney general's office said.

In January, the authorities in the two counties announced that after working with the F.B.I. they had arrested more than 40 people tied to white supremacist groups with names like Angry Nazi Soldiers. The arrests, mostly on drug and weapons charges, spanned more than a year.

The authorities have said that southern Riverside County, which includes Murrieta, appears to have the most significant problem. John Ruiz, a deputy district attorney, said there were pockets of white supremacists and occasional flare-ups of racial tension in schools.

"Some people have moved out to these rural areas because they don't like rubbing elbows with ethnic minorities," Mr. Ruiz said. "It's a small, but very vocal, minority."

Ethnic minorities are increasing in number in the counties. While the counties' population increased more than 25 percent from 1990 to 2000, the percentage of white residents declined to less than half from about 63 percent, census figures show.

In the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, the nonwhite student population grew from 28 percent in 1999 to 42 percent in 2004. The district created a human relations council last year to address racial issues after attacks on two black students at Murrieta Valley High School, one of whom was Ms. Farr's son, Sam.

"People should know that this is going on out here," said Ms. Farr, whose family has joined a lawsuit against the district.

However, a district spokeswoman, Karen Parris, said assertions of racial tension were exaggerated. "Statistics show that whenever a community grows you get an increase in social problems," Ms. Parris said.