The Man Who Puts Poison in the Food

When Michael Manning of North Hills bought $24.49 worth of groceries recently at his local Ralphs, his receipt was printed with a gentle plug for charity:

Help Make A Difference

Support Coins For Our Community

Later, inside a box of Cheez-It crackers, Manning found another message--a grim political cartoon depicting a man being blasted by machine-gun fire. “How’s this for a new slogan for the U.S. Border Patrol? ‘If it ain’t white . . . WASTE IT!’ ” It offered a phone number for people who wish “to help deport them or kill them.”

And that’s how Manning happened upon the escalating war between the forces of light and the forces of whiteness.

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Mike Manning is a 47-year-old ex-Marine who did a tour in Vietnam. He seethed when he saw the leaflet. The more he learns about Allan Eric Carlson, the more he loathes him. Carlson, 32, is a Glendale man who has taken it upon himself to “save” white folks (tho ones who aren’t Jewish) from everybody else. Manning is a white guy who isn’t Jewish, and so am I. We’d much rather be spared Carlson and his ilk. Who knows what they’ll be putting in our groceries next?

With good reason, the California Grocers Assn. believes that Carlson is substantially responsible for the thousands of hate leaflets that have been inserted in goods at stores throughout Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, angering customers and grocers. Two months ago, the group obtained a Superior Court injunction against Carlson, forbidding him from inserting his propaganda into product packaging in 1,100 stores that are members of the grocers association.

When Manning saw the leaflet in his Cheez-It box, he figured somebody must have broken a law. Isn’t this product tampering? Isn’t it, at least, some sort of invasion of privacy?

Carlson, it seems, stumbled upon the beauty of the First Amendment by accident.

Two years ago, he was nabbed in a West Covina grocery store rubber-stamping hate messages on magazines and books. That’s vandalism, not free speech. Last year, he was arrested at Simi Valley High School after slipping leaflets into 600 lockers. Carlson wasn’t prosecuted for doing that--the U.S. Constitution protected him--but he was prosecuted for taking a swing at a school custodian. (Carlson would later spend a few days in jail for violating his probation, the terms of which required his attendance at “anger counseling” sessions. He didn’t show up.)

Attorneys familiar with Carlson’s activities say he has had better luck putting his messages in mailboxes and grocery packaging. Yes, it may be a violation of federal law to put anything other than the mail in a mailbox, but federal prosecutors have concluded that it would be selective prosecution to go after Carlson and not neighborhood gardeners and handymen who often commit this minor offense. Laws pertaining to product tampering specify that the package seal must be broken. So there’s no statute to prevent any of us from pinching the top of a cracker box and slipping a little piece of paper inside. The box isn’t broken and a bag inside protects the crackers.

So the California Grocers Assn. took Carlson to civil court and argued that his activities were tantamount to trespassing--and won the injunction. All it means, however, is that Carlson is personally forbidden from such deeds. His fellow travelers aren’t.

Since the injunction, white separatists have stepped up their insidious, clandestine campaign. More and more messages of racial hatred are finding their way inside our groceries. “It’s been a hollow victory,” concedes Robert Kennedy, the grocers’ attorney.

Stores are printing “Wanted” posters and offering a reward, hoping Carlson might be caught in the act. If that happens, Kennedy says, he could be thrown in jail for up to six months.

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Mike Manning may be a white guy, but he considers himself the victim of a hate crime. A misdemeanor, perhaps, but a crime nonetheless. So does the Pasadena mom who at first thought a coupon fell out of the box of Mini Pop-Tarts, then discovered an ugly screed against African Americans. After her name and phone number were included in the grocers’ court filing, Carlson put the info on his telephone hot line, bringing her a rash of harassing phone calls.

There ought to be a law, they say. Manning has called his city councilman and state senator. Tzivia Schwartz, an attorney with the Anti-Defamation League, suggests that the First Amendment wasn’t meant to protect cowards sneaking around the grocery store.

My humble efforts to reach Carlson weren’t successful. He isn’t listed in information. The recording on his hot line offered a phone number for the White Aryan Resistance. In the spirit of the city’s recent Day of Dialogue, perhaps I should have tried harder. Neo-Nazis are people, too. Then again, Carlson still seems to be working on that anger problem. Working very hard.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number. Address TimesLink or Prodigy e-mail to YQTU59A ( via the Internet: YQTU59A@prodigy.com).