TENSE INCIDENTS DEMAND UNIFIED RESPONSES

Atrocious images — and the accompanying national news coverage — of a middle-aged white man wearing what looked like a Ku Klux Klan hood while shopping at a Vons in Santee on Saturday have revived painful memories about the history of racist incidents in San Diego County and a city that has been derided as “Klantee.” The Sheriff ’s Department has identified the man — but not released his name — and is conducting a hate-crime investigation. That is the proper response to such ugliness.

Everyone must stand up to hate to eradicate it or relegate it to the underbelly of society, so how people respond to such situations says a lot about them. Some shoppers who took photos of the man said Vons employees didn’t do enough to confront him, but the reaction from Vons executives and local officials like county Supervisor Dianne Jacobs and Santee Mayor John Minto was properly horrified.

Francine Maxwell, president of the NAACP’S San

Diego branch, linked the Santee incident to the arrest of an African American woman at Ocean Beach over the weekend by three officers who approached her after lifeguards complained that her dog was not leashed. That case seems less clear-cut. Police say she was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public and for resisting arrest because she slipped out of handcuffs twice. But onlookers said white beachgoers with dogs were not approached.

A review is needed here, too. Police and lifeguards need to ensure they are treating people consistently. And every San Diegan deserves greater clarity on what is or isn’t allowed and where during this confusing and evolving pandemic — especially as local jurisdictions move toward reopening more and more businesses and locations, and as newly revised rules will vary countywide. Officers should give the public the benefit of the doubt — unless people clearly don’t deserve it, such as the man in Santee.