Rain Dampens Event as Foes Outnumber ‘Skinheads’ at Rally

Roughly 50 white racists and “skinheads,” met by protesters and police, showed up Saturday for what was hyped as an “Aryan Woodstock.” At the same time, it was reported that the man who leased the land for the event had fled Nazi Germany as a child.

When about 400 protesters arrived, a force of 200 California Highway Patrol officers, Napa and Solano county sheriff’s deputies and officers from several city police departments closed California 12 leading to the site.

The protesters had marched up the two-lane highway to a private road leading to the hill where the racists milled. When police barred them from going up, the protesters shouted taunts over bullhorns and dared the skinheads to come down.

White Power Salutes

Atop the steep hill, skinheads gave straight-armed white power salutes and fired up a barbecue, despite heavy rain. Some of the youths sported swastikas, patches of the Confederate flag and other insignia indicating anti-Semitic and white supremacist views.

This scene went on for an hour until the protesters, soaked by the storm, left on a two-mile walk back to a parking area.

“It’s a dud,” declared Napa County Sheriff’s Capt. Richard Lonergan. There were no arrests.

At one point, a van loaded with Solano County sheriff’s deputies drove up the hill and checked a pickup truck for guns. The deputies inspected several rifles, determined that they were legal, and left.

“They are not welcome in my community and I think they need to know they’re not welcome,” said protester Marti Kramer.

Among protesters were members of the Guardian Angels, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, the Ad Hoc Coalition to Stop the Nazi Skinheads and the Marxist-Leninist Party. Some other groups, including the NAACP, stayed away so as not to give the skinheads recognition.

Widespread Appeal

Tom Metzger, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who helped organize the event, had claimed he would raffle off a gun, perhaps, he said, an AK-47 assault rifle at the event. Metzger, trying to add to his following from among disaffected white youths, generated considerable publicity in Northern California for the event by claiming that he would attract 2,000 racists to an “Aryan Woodstock” at the site on the Napa-Solano county line.

If Metzger was in attendance, it was not apparent. The racists refused to discuss the affair. When several reporters scaled the hill, skinheads threatened to make “citizen’s arrests” for trespassing.

“You don’t belong here,” said one man, wearing a military surplus belt, combat boots, a leather jacket and spitting tobacco juice.

Dr. Howard C. Lonsdale, who leased the 70-acres of grazing land to the group, arrived and demanded that reporters leave. In court on Friday, Lonsdale defended the racists’ right to gather, declaring: “The real heart of my firm stand is free speech.”

1937 Flight Recalled

The Vallejo physician would not comment on a report in the Sacramento Bee that as a child in 1937, he and his family fled Berlin. In an interview Saturday, Leon Coon, a friend of Lonsdale, said the Lonsdale family left Nazi Germany because the father was Jewish.

Coon said the doctor was “duped” into leasing the land, thinking that he was dealing with an environmentalist group. Coon said his friend was “intimidated” into not trying to break the lease.

“He didn’t realize it was a scam until the last minute,” Coon said. He noted that by Saturday morning the group had not paid Lonsdale the agreed-upon $250 to lease the land.

Coon said that after the group’s political views became known, some organizers visited Lonsdale. Although no direct threats were made, the doctor felt intimidated.

“These people don’t threaten, but they do intimidate. . . . He’s living up there with just he and his wife, miles away from anything,” Coon said.

No Provisions Made

Coon noted that Metzger and his group failed to make even the most simple provisions, failing, for example, to determine whether electricity could be brought to the steep land.

“They’re doing it for name, the money, and power,” Coon said. “He (Lonsdale) is going to be left holding the bag.”

Authorities and civil rights groups charged that 2,000 to 3,500 hard-core skinheads are responsible for a growing amount of violence around the country, and that they are using computers, bulk mail and guest shots on TV talk shows to spread their message of hate. They were implicated in three slayings last year, and California is thought to be home to the largest and most violent concentration.

A plan for a concert as part of the event ended Friday, when a Napa County Superior Court judge, acting on a suit by the Napa County Board of Supervisors that sought to block the event, decreed that while a political gathering could take place, there could be no concert.

Among the protesters was Irv Rubin, leader of the Jewish Defense League, who described the neo-Nazi skinheads as a “real threat.” He said he was disappointed at the turnout of protesters, saying that given the threat posed by the racist youth movement, there “should be thousands” of people protesting.