Hate Takes a New Turn

First there was some dull lecturing from an unidentified source, followed by the driving twang of an electric guitar. Finally came the strangely jaunty tone of a very angry white male.

“Greetings! You have reached the voice of Robin Hood, I mean Reason, an independent voice in the seemingly impossible struggle for white racial survival here in mud-choked, racially treasonous North America. Today is Monday, Dec. 18, 1995 . . . And I am kind of like Robin Hood, with a red swastika drawn between my eyes, stalking the forests of Bel-Air, firing arrows at the rich and useless. . . .”

Allan Eric Carlson hasn’t been able to update his hate line lately. On the night of Tuesday, Dec. 19, he was arrested not in Bel-Air, but in Newport Beach, and not with a crossbow, but with a pellet gun. He was allegedly stalking BMWs and Mercedes.

And so this would-be Robin Hood, this Prince of Misfits, wound up spending Christmas inside the Orange County Jail.

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Some readers may remember Allan Carlson. It’s been a couple of months since our last visit into his lonely, spiteful little world. A New Jersey native, he came to L.A. with dreams of making movies but has wound up skulking around grocery stores, slipping racist propaganda into boxes of Pop-Tarts and 12-packs of Bud. The funny thing was, he wasn’t breaking any existing laws, at least as long as he didn’t vandalize the packaging or break product seals.

Carlson, a Glendale resident when not in jail, had somehow developed the impression that his actions were protected by the 1st Amendment. When the California Grocers Assn., frustrated by law enforcement’s efforts to deal with Carlson, took civil action against him, Carlson says he asked the American Civil Liberties Union to defend his constitutional rights. The ACLU, which has famously defended Nazis, apparently figured it had better things to do. At any rate, the grocers won an injunction.

It was at about that point that I’d received a phone call from Mike Manning, a white male who was angry for reasons Carlson doesn’t appreciate. When Manning found an ugly flier in a box of Cheez-Its crackers, he called Ralphs and the grocers’ group and learned all about Carlson and the legal loophole.

The injunction affects Carlson, but anybody else could slip messages into product packaging. For that matter, Carlson could too, if the store wasn’t part of the grocers association. Manning, a North Hills resident, also called City Councilman Joel Wachs and said there ought to be a law. Wachs agreed.

In a society where government often moves too slowly, it’s nice to be able to report signs of progress in such a short period of time. On Jan. 3, the city attorney’s office is expected to present wording on a proposed ordinance to the City Council’s Governmental Efficiency Committee, which is chaired by Wachs. The ordinance is expected to advance the legal concept that the unauthorized placement of foreign objects into product packaging constitutes a form of trespassing. Such packages are, after all, private property.

The City Council isn’t the only governing body awaiting the ordinance. Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), who is working with Wachs’ office, is also awaiting the city attorney’s draft. She wants to use it as blueprint for the creation of a state law that should please shoppers, grocers, wholesalers--everybody, really, but the likes of Carlson.

What politician would oppose it and why? It seems reasonable to expect that such a measure would receive the two-thirds support that could make it effective immediately and not until Jan. 1, 1997.

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It would be nice to report that Allan Carlson is making progress as well. When we spoke on the phone two months ago, the conversation was cordial. When he acknowledged his loneliness, I harbored the remote hope that he might take a local pastor’s dare to drop by church and seek a new life. Stranger things have happened.

According to Sgt. Andy Goniz of the Newport Beach police, Carlson was pulled over by a patrol officer responding to a witness’ report: Somebody in a black Honda compact had shot out the driver’s-side window of a parked car. It’s interesting that a white supremacist drives a Japanese car. It’s more interesting that police found a pellet gun and jar of ammunition inside.

He was arrested.

By the next day, Newport Beach police had received more than 30 reports of car windows having been shot out, mostly BMWs and Mercedeses. Carlson instantly became the prime suspect in 48 similar car shootings in Newport Beach on Dec. 10.

It all fits. Carlson says he hates the wealthy “ruling class” about as much as he hates blacks, Latinos and Asians. Carlson, who remains in jail, hasn’t had his day in court.

But to assume the police are right is to see the evolution of a zealot from propaganda to more dangerous means. If this counts for personal growth, it’s scary.