Restaurateur Says He Served Neo-Nazis Out of Fear of Reprisal

The owner of a German restaurant in San Fernando said Monday he did not keep a promise to cancel a weekend banquet by a neo-Nazi organization because he feared violence from members of the group, some armed with tear gas, who congregated outside the building.

Bob Harman, owner of the Alpine Haus on Hubbard Avenue, said last week that he had canceled, for the second time, a reservation for a banquet room for the White Aryan Resistance after the militant Jewish Defense League said it would demonstrate at the restaurant if the white-supremacist group were allowed to meet there Saturday night.

“They still showed up and, by 8 p.m., there were about 50 milling around on the sidewalk,” Harman said. “Some of them had tear-gas canisters on their belts.”

It is legal for California citizens to carry tear-gas weapons if they have a state permit issued after taking a certified course and passing an examination.

“Some of them were sort of unsavory looking,” Harman said. “It was a perfect opportunity for a confrontation.

“I thought the simplest thing to do was to bring them in the back door and let them have their silly little meeting” in a private room, he said.

Harman said members of an organization with the initials WAPA had made reservations for 75 people several weeks ago.

He said he did not know that Tom Metzger, whose name was left as a contact, is the former director of the Southern California Ku Klux Klan and leader of the White Aryan Resistance, formerly the White American Political Assn.

Harman said he called Metzger on Friday and canceled the banquet after receiving a call from Irv Rubin, chairman of the Jewish Defense League, threatening a protest if the banquet took place.

It was the second time in four weeks that the group had booked the Alpine Haus for a meeting. On April 19, the day before Adolf Hitler’s birthday, Harman canceled a party for 50 after Rubin warned that the JDL would demonstrate if the White Aryan Resistance used his restaurant.

Metzger said Monday that he told Harman that, by the time Harman contacted him, it was too late to notify members of “mostly white-rights groups and other racialist types” who had been invited. He said the group planned to meet outside the Alpine Haus and then go to another San Fernando Valley location, which he would not name.

“We had no idea he was going to let us in,” Metzger said Monday. “He came out and said, since he didn’t think the JDL was coming around, we might as well come on in. He was a businessman and saw a good opportunity.

“I don’t think he should be ashamed of it. Everyone should have the right to assemble peacefully.”

Harman said the suggestion that he allowed the group in to boost business was “ridiculous. It was a matter of getting them out” of the parking lot, he said.

“The receipts totaled $300, and that’s coffee money for me,” Harman said.

Metzger said several banqueters carried tear gas and pocketknives “simply as a security measure.”

Metzger said the turnout was about 75. Harman estimated the attendance at about 50, but not all ate, he said.

Political Speeches

Metzger said the banqueters heard political speeches about what he called “the plight of the white worker in Los Angeles.” Harman said one man at the banquet wore a T-shirt with “Aryan Brotherhood” printed on it and another wore a swastika lapel button.

Rubin said that allowing the banquet to proceed after saying it had been canceled “was a rotten thing” for Harman to do. “I trusted Harman because he canceled the first dinner. Now I know that I have to organize an effort to show everyone in the San Fernando Valley that this man has no sensitivity.”

He said he will stage a demonstration outside the restaurant soon but did not specify a date.

Harman said he does not want anyone to think he sympathizes with “these kind of radical fringe groups.”

“My wife and two children are Jewish,” he added.