Supporters Rally Round the Victim of a Hate Crime : Rights: Members of several churches gather on a front lawn where a cross was recently burned to assure the resident he is not alone in the struggle against racial bias.

By THUAN LE

July 22, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

GARDEN GROVE — Just as he was shocked to find a burned cross on his front lawn last week, Michael Coffey was surprised Sunday to find about 50 people standing there saying he is not alone in his fight against hate crimes.

“If haters act to isolate a neighbor with hate, citizens are going to insulate that neighbor with love,” said Frank Eiklor, who organized the rally. He is the president of Shalom International, an anti-bias organization in Costa Mesa.

“He said there would be a few people over,” Coffey said, recalling Eiklor’s phone call informing him of the support rally. “I didn’t think this many people would show up. . . . It’s nice to know you’re not alone on this earth.”

Coffey, an aerospace engineer, was surrounded in front of his house in the 13000 block of Jefferson Street by members of about five churches from Orange and Los Angeles counties, including Calvary Church of Santa Ana, the Crystal Cathedral and Set Free Christian Fellowship in Anaheim.

“Hate is a cancer that will never go away unless that cancer is removed by community support,” Eiklor said. “The cancer that goes to Mr. Coffey today can come for me tomorrow.”

Participants, who went to Coffey’s home after church services, clapped and yelled “Amen” and “Praise the Lord” in response to comments from rally speakers.

“Jesus said love your neighbor. He didn’t say love your white neighbor,” said David Baichtal, an associate pastor for Set Free Christian Fellowship. Turning to Coffey, he said, “We’re just here to say we love you.”

Coffey, who moved to Garden Grove from Oklahoma 10 years ago, said he had faced other forms of racism in Orange County before finding the cross burned on his lawn Wednesday. Neighborhood juveniles have yelled racial slurs at him, he said, and vandals spray-painted racial epithets on his driveway earlier this summer.

Police said the cross-burning incident may have been the result of a landlord-tenant dispute. Coffey said Sunday that he was not sure if the cross was burned by strangers or by tenants he evicted July 3.

“It could be both,” Coffey said, standing in the apartment that the tenants left in shambles. “They (the evicted tenants) could know who did it.”

The evicted tenants moved into a two-bedroom apartment on Coffey’s property in October but stopped paying rent in January, Coffey said.

Participants in Sunday’s rally offered to return Saturday morning with paintbrushes, a carpet-cleaning machine and carpentry tools to help Coffey restore the rooms.