Sponsors of Controversial Glendale Racial Debate Come Under Attack

Leaders of a Glendale civil rights group were strongly criticized Friday by the city manager and by a challenger within their organization for sponsoring a controversial racial debate which turned into a violent confrontation the night before at the Glendale Central Library.

“The fiasco that occurred at the library was disgraceful and one that the organizers should be ashamed of,” Glendale City Manager James M. Rez said of the aborted event sponsored by the Glendale Human Relations Council. He said he would forbid the use of a city building if another attempt were made to hold the controversial forum.

Scott McCreary, a past president of the non-governmental Human Relations Council, said the melee has prompted him to organize a movement to dump the group’s steering committee.

“Getting into confrontational politics like that is really inappropriate for the city and the cause. It’s like crying fire in a crowded elevator,” McCreary said.

Thursday night at the library, about 150 people showed up, including leaders and members of the Ku Klux Klan, a neo-Nazi group and the Jewish Defense League, as well as a contingent of left-wing students intent on disrupting the meeting. Ugly arguments broke out and a brawl followed, leaving at least one man bloodied and another arrested. The debate was canceled before it could begin.

Ray Reyes, who heads a counseling program for minority and low-income students at Glendale Community College, is the leader of the Human Relations Council’s steering committee. He could not be reached for a response.

However, Ken Carlson, a frequent spokesmen for the group, said it might try once again to debate supporters of the Pace Amendment, a proposal to deport all people not of Western European background. He stressed that entrance to any future debate would have to be restricted somehow to only people who live or work in Glendale.

“We are not going to fail to address an important community issue simply because crazies from outside Glendale might want to come and fight with each other,” said Carlson, a local attorney. “We didn’t provoke or design what happened.”

Weeks ago, officials of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the County Commission on Human Relations had urged the Glendale group not to schedule the debate. But the sponsors insisted they had to confront the so-called Pace Advocates and find out why that white-separatist organization moved its offices to Glendale in January.