Riverside Drafts Law to Ban Any Bias at Discos

The Riverside City Council has directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance allowing the city to revoke the permit of any dance hall operator who violates state and federal civil rights laws.

The council, in its decision Tuesday, was acting on one of several recommendations by the city’s Community Relations Commission, which had been looking into allegations by black and Latino residents that the Red Onion restaurant chain barred them from its disco.

Red Onion officials have denied repeatedly that the company discriminates against racial groups. They recently announced a $2-million-a-year program including a search for minority suppliers and establishment of a scholarship fund for minority youths in order to correct what they called the “perception of a problem.”