Court Employees Urged to Boycott Eatery Where Neo-Nazis Met

A San Fernando Municipal Court judge said Wednesday that he is urging courthouse employees to boycott a nearby German restaurant because the owner allowed a neo-Nazi organization to hold a banquet there.

Judge Michael S. Luros, supervising judge of the misdemeanor division, said he will distribute memos today to all personnel, including district and city attorneys, bailiffs and clerks, asking them as a “matter of conscience” not to patronize the Alpine Haus, a popular San Fernando restaurant less than a mile from the courthouse.

Bob Harman, owner of the restaurant, did not hold to an earlier decision to cancel a banquet reservation by the White Aryan Resistance on Saturday night, saying he feared violence from members of the group who showed up anyway and gathered outside the restaurant.

Harman had previously canceled the reservation, after the militant Jewish Defense League warned it would demonstrate at the restaurant if the white-supremacist group were allowed to meet there. It was the second time in less than a month that a JDL threat had caused Harman to cancel a reservation by the White Aryan group.

Judge ‘Distressed’

Luros said he was “distressed” to learn that the group was allowed to meet anyway at the restaurant, where many court employees eat and where a courthouse Christmas party was held last year.

He said he will stop going to the restaurant because he feels it is his “obligation as a member of the judiciary to avoid creating the appearance of legitimate or passive approval” of the neo-Nazis who met there Saturday night.

Luros said he wrote, in a letter mailed to Harman Wednesday: “I believe these organizations espouse a philosophy that is abhorrent to the concept of human dignity, due process and equal protection, principles fundamental to our system of justice.”

He said he will send a similar letter to co-workers. The letters were printed on personal stationery, at his own cost, he said.

“The fact that I am a judge is secondary to what I feel as an individual,” Luros said. “I believe it necessary not to patronize an establishment which extends its facilities to such a group. . . . I am only suggesting that others do the same.”

Stand Called ‘Stupid’

Harman called Luros’ stand “stupid and ridiculous. He didn’t even have the decency to call me to find out what really happened.”

Harman said that neither he nor his employees are affiliated or sympathize with white supremacist groups, repeating his explanation that he allowed the Aryan group in the restaurant only to avoid violence in his parking lot, where the members had congregated.

“This is a free country and any group can meet wherever they want. I still believe in freedom of assembly,” Harman said. “I’ll let the JDL meet here and then we will be even.”

Luros said he is not interfering with the right to assemble, but exercising his right to choose which business establishments to support.

Leaders of several San Fernando community groups that regularly meet at the Alpine Haus--the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis clubs--said Wednesday that they do not believe that the neo-Nazi meeting will affect their continued patronage of the restaurant.

“For many years the Alpine Haus has been a good, old-time, reliable place to go in the neighborhood,” said Richard Hester, president of the Chamber of Commerce. “I don’t have any concerns about this and I don’t think our chamber would.”

“This is a free speech issue, and, while I don’t agree with their politics, it does not mean they don’t have a right to meet there,” Dan Peavy, president of the Rotary Club, said. “This is not an issue our club would get involved in.”

Former San Fernando Mayor Doude Wysbeek, who is also active in the Lions Club, said Harman made a “bad business decision” by allowing the banquet. “I don’t believe he sympathizes with the group, but if he books them again I will personally lead a drive to have the Lions Club move out,” Wysbeek said.

The president of the Kiwanis Club said his organization had not discussed the matter.