HEMET USED TO BE SUCH A SLEEPY LITTLE TOWN

When I worked in the area back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Hemet was a sleepy little town of retirees with the usual property crimes, but with hardly any crimes against persons. Today, many residents who live there work in Los Angeles, thus bringing L.A.’s problems home.
　
TWO MEN ARRESTED IN ATTACKS ON HEMET POLICE
Nicholas John Smit is suspected of attempting to murder a police officer and of building a potentially deadly booby trap. Steven Hansen, a convicted arsonist, is arrested on a parole violation.
　
By Phil Willon
　
Los Angeles Times
July 4, 2010
　
Reporting from Hemet, Calif. — Hemet police announced the arrest Saturday of two men in connection with seven violent attacks against local authorities in this small Riverside County city.

Nicholas John Smit, 40, of Hemet, was booked on suspicion of attempting to murder a police officer and of building a potentially deadly booby trap. Smit already faces charges for cultivating marijuana, the result of an earlier arrest made by Hemet police, said Chief Richard Dana.
　
Also arrested was Steven Hansen, 36, a convicted arsonist from nearby Homeland, who was taken into custody on a parole violation for weapons possession. Hansen has not been booked in connection with any of the attacks, although Dana said charges may be filed this week.

The attacks on Hemet police started six months ago and include arson fires and a booby-trapped zip gun rigged to shoot an anti-gang investigator. As a precaution, officers were told to inspect their squad cars daily and to remain vigilant. Roadblocks went up behind the main police station, and blast-proof glass, barricades and fences were installed as well.
　
Dana said 78 officers, sheriff's deputies and federal agents raided the two suspects' homes Friday. At least two other suspects remain at large, he said. He said Smit and Hansen know each other, but he declined to discuss the nature of their relationship.

Since the attacks began in December, investigators have speculated that the crimes were the work of the Vagos motorcycle gang or a band of white supremacists. Police are still trying to determine whether Smit or Hansen are connected to any gangs.

The arrests on Friday come less than a week after a suspected arson fire damaged a Hemet Police Department building that housed evidence gathered from the previous attacks, as well as evidence for thousands of pending and past criminal cases.

It was the seventh attack, and the third suspected arson.

In January, the Hemet-San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force discovered that a natural gas line had been diverted into its office on New Year's Eve, although the gas never ignited. A month later, a booby-trapped zip gun, or improvised pistol, fired a bullet at an officer when he opened a security gate.

In March, a suspicious device was attached to a gang enforcement officer's unmarked vehicle; two weeks later, four city code-enforcement trucks were torched in the Hemet City Hall parking lot. In April, an early-morning fire damaged the Hemet police shooting range.

And in June, authorities found a vintage military rocket on the roof of a nearby market, pointed in the direction of the police station.