Anti-Racist Activists Picket, but Targets Are No-Shows

About 20 anti-racist activists picketed the Glendale Masonic Lodge on Sunday to protest a Bible study conference, but they were a bit late. The final session of the three-day conference was called off at the last minute by organizers to avoid confrontations, police said.

That announcement, however, did not discourage demonstrators from marching around the lodge entrance for more than two hours chanting “No racists, no KKK, no fascist USA” and other anti-racist slogans.

The demonstration was incident-free, but it attracted the largest number of Glendale police personnel since white supremacist advocates and anti-racist groups clashed in a 1987 mini-riot.

Protesters said the ministers, who had gathered for the Message Prophetic Bible Conference this weekend, use religion to conceal and legitimize their racist beliefs.

Church Denounced

“The so-called ‘Christian Identity’ or ‘Kingdom Identity Church’ is not a religion, but a racist theology that unites the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and paramilitary survivalists into a national network,” said Mike Nadel, spokesman for the Glendale-based People Against Racist Terror, organizers of the protest.

Several protesters carried signs denouncing the Identity Church doctrine as a form of racism. “Identity preaches hatred,” one of them read.

The protest failed to attract a large crowd, but it got the Police Department’s full attention.

More than 80 Glendale police officers surrounded the demonstration site, setting up a headquarters tent in a parking lot across the street. A police helicopter provided extra surveillance and an anti-riot unit monitored the gathering from nearby rooftops. At least three other policemen filmed and photographed the demonstrators.

‘Better Be Prepared’

“Better be prepared than come up short-handed,” said police spokesman Dean Durand. “When we prepared for this incident we had no idea that one of the factions would not show up.”

Durand said the demonstrators were filmed because “we always videotape incidents. It’s useful in court presentations, and it’s an excellent training tool.”

Pastor Robert Record, who hosted the conference, could not be reached for comment at his Escondido home. Record has a Los Angeles-area radio program called National Message.

Nadel said Record preaches in his monthly radio broadcasts that descendants of people from Britain and Scandinavia are God’s Chosen People, that interracial marriages are against God’s will and that Blacks are “pre-Adam” humans.

Anti-Semitism

“Under the guise of religion he preaches anti-Semitism, racism and hatred towards gays,” Nadel said.

Many of the protesters called themselves “skinheads,” a group known for holding pro-Nazi views.

“We want to clear the skinhead name,” said Jonehen E., who would not give his last name but said he was a spokesman for Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, or SHARP. “Skinhead stands for patriotism and individualism, not racial hatred. That’s why we’re here, and we’ll keep going to demonstrations to change that perception.”

Durand said he was happy to see the afternoon go by peacefully. “We had every intention of not allowing another incident like the one at the Holiday Inn,” he said, referring to the mini-riot after a 1987 public appearence by avowed white supremacist J.B. Stoner at the Glendale Holiday Inn.