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New Lawsuit Says Palos Verdes Surfer Gang Members Wore Blackface On MLK Day
Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes (Photo by tiarescott via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
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As if the Lunada Bay Boys could get any worse: a new lawsuit alleges that the notorious Palos Verdes surfer gang confronted a group of outsiders while wearing blackface on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2014.
According to the Daily Breeze, the lawsuit states that one of the Boys, Anthony Beukema, wore an Afro wig and blackface to an anti-localism protest, and told the organizer, "You don't pay enough taxes to be here."
Beukema's mother told the Daily Breeze that it couldn't have been her son; because it was another guy who left her house decked out in blackface. Oh, well then!
The new lawsuit also references specific incidents that date back to 1995 that indicate racism has been a common theme for the Bay Boys for decades. That year, one of the gang members told the L.A. Times that they want to keep outsiders out "so we can have driftwood on the beach rather than Kentucky Fried Chicken boxes. If this place was ever opened up, it would be packed with low riders, guys in VW bugs; the rocks would be marked with graffiti, and the beach wouldn't be safe at night." No, sir: you sound like the literal garbage, tbh.
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This lawsuit was filed in state court Thursday by Diana Reed and Cory Spencer, the same people who filed another suit against the gang alleging several instances of assault and harassment in March. You might remember Reed saying that when she attempted to surf at Lunada Beach, the Bay Boys called her a "bitch," and yelled, "fuck you" before spraying beer on her, filming it, and making disgusting remarks like telling her his penis was big enough to "get the job done," and that she made him "hard," before exposing himself.
And that's just one small example of some of the activities the mostly middle aged, affluent Bay Boys have engaged in over the years in order to "protect" "their" precious waves. They also have been known to slash tires, issue death threats, deal drugs, and assault people at Dodger Stadium.
But maybe...just maybe, things are about to really go down for the Bay Boys, who have pretty much gotten away with everything until now. Last month, the Palos Verdes Estates City Council voted to tear down a fort that was built as a secret hideout of sorts; you know, a place to chill out for awhile after throwing rocks at people you don't recognize.
It's about time officials actually do something. Despite meeting the definition of a "criminal street gang," officials dismissed the very-real complaints of harassment as "urban legend" so as to avoid public scrutiny over the gang's activity.
According to the L.A. Times, the City of Palos Verdes Estates and its police chief, Jeff Kepley, are also named as defendants in the latest lawsuit, because the plaintiffs allege that over the years, they failed to prosecute the Bay Boys for anything.
"We didn’t want to run around filing lawsuits," the plaintiff's attorney Vic Otten told the Daily Breeze. "They brought it on themselves."
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