Racist Group Tied to Local Hate Crimes

Vandalism at two San Fernando Valley synagogues and the discovery of hate literature in supermarket food products reflect the growing local strength of the National Alliance, a nationwide racist group, the Anti-Defamation League said Thursday.

The local incidents are being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, said Deputy Chief Michael Bostic, who appeared at a news conference with David A. Lehrer, the league’s regional director.

Bostic, who declined to discuss the investigations, said only that detectives have identified possible suspects but no arrests have been made.

As in other hate crimes across the country, the group’s Web site address was found written on the walls of the vandalized synagogues and on fliers found at the supermarkets, Lehrer said.

“When they leave that, who do you think did it?” Lehrer asked, pointing to a picture of the Web site reference taken at one of the synagogue incidents this summer.

The news conference outside the Van Nuys Courthouse was called to publicize the league’s report on the alliance, a West Virginia-based group headed since the 1970s by William L. Pierce, author of “The Turner Diaries,” a racist novel.

“The novel is thought to have inspired several major acts of violence, including the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,” the league report said.

Pierce, 66--who once taught physics at the University of Oregon--used the pen name Andrew MacDonald when he wrote “The Turner Diaries,” a novel about a world-wide revolution by an all-white Army and the extermination of blacks, Jews and other minorities. The novel is often viewed by critics as an explicit guide for terrorist acts.

Pierce still supervises the organization’s publications and his rhetoric can be heard in weekly radio broadcasts--”Dissident Voices”--on AM and FM stations across the country, Lehrer said.

The Van Nuys news conference was one of several held Thursday in league regions nationwide.

According to the league, the National Alliance has a membership of about 1,000 in 16 active cells across the country.

It is not known how well-organized the National Alliance is in Southern California, Lehrer and Bostic said. The Alliance is stronger in other states, but the synagogue vandalism and the supermarket incidents, at stores in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, indicate the group has at least some sympathizers here, Lehrer said.

The group’s activities--including violent crimes such as robberies and bombings--have been uncovered in at least 26 states, including Ohio, Florida, Michigan, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and New Mexico, Lehrer said.

The group’s growth is due in part to its ability to disseminate information using technology such as the Internet and link up with like-minded groups in the United States and abroad, Lehrer said.

According to the report, the National Alliance has members in Holland, France, Great Britain and Germany and maintains communication with racist parties across Europe.

“They are not an insignificant fringe group,” Lehrer said.

In California, members run at least two phone message-service lines in Rancho Cucamonga and in the Sacramento area, the league said.

The group made its strongest appearance in the Los Angeles area in late July when fliers were found at supermarkets in packages of taco shells, cookies, ice cream bars, soda and canned tuna.

Part of the message read: “Our culture and racial heritage have been destroyed . . . by this tribe of hateful control freaks.” The pamphlet suggested a prominent Jewish film producer be chained to a pickup truck and dragged “down Sunset Blvd. before we are exterminated through interracial sex and marriage?”

Fliers with the same message also appeared in mailboxes in Glendale, La Canada-Flintridge, Agoura Hills, Valencia, Santa Clarita, Encino and Newhall.

On July 30, Temple Solael in West Hills and Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge were vandalized. In addition to the Web address, the perpetrators left a message reading: “Stop Murdering the White Race.”