GLENDALE : Callers Threaten Editor Over Article

Several dozen angry readers made a series of threatening phone calls to a Glendale newspaper editor after apparently misinterpreting a column he wrote urging understanding among different ethnic groups, police said Thursday.

The calls, which included several death threats, to City Editor David Heitz of the Glendale News-Press started Tuesday, the day his column was published. In it, Heitz quoted several callers who had made racist remarks against Armenians and other minorities on the newspaper’s community hot line.

But the column sparked a response from readers, most of whom identified themselves as Armenians, who believed the editor was insulting them, according to a police report.

“The last thing I expected was this,” Heitz said Thursday. “What blows my mind about this town is that there are these hateful feelings just below the surface and everybody thinks that if they ignore it, it will go away. There’s no way I’m going to be city editor and not address some of these issues.”

As of Thursday, Heitz said he had received about 35 threatening calls. He said police had told him the furor may have started at a local school, where an unidentified student is believed to have cut-and-pasted the article to make it appear to be anti-Armenian, then photocopied and distributed it to Armenian students.

Pierre Chraghchian, a member of the Armenian National Committee board of directors, said the organization was “caught off-guard” by the reported threats.

“It’s difficult for us to figure out why an Armenian would make those threats, let alone in such an organized fashion,” Chraghchian said. “We support what was written. I read the column about 10 times and I still can’t figure out how anyone would think it is against Armenians.”

Glendale police said they are investigating the threats. Several callers reportedly left their phone numbers and names on the newspaper’s voice mail system.