Threats p.s

By: M.L. Stein

an Diego County weeklies receive series of
hate letters purportedly from the Ku Klux Klan sp.

THREATENING LETTERS purporting to be from the Ku Klux Klan were sent to San Diego County weeklies, one of which was threatened with destruction.
The threats became reality at the Lemon Grove Review when a rock was hurled through the window of a building mistakenly believed to house the paper.
One of the letters, which have assailed Jews, blacks, gays, lesbians, Hispanic "wetbacks," the Catholic Church and the Mafia, was received by the San Diego Jewish Times, a paper that was fire-bombed in 1989, apparently by one or more members of a hate group.
Pete Kaufman, who publishes the Review and two other community weeklies in the county, has been the recipient of nine letters since early September, most of them signed by the "Exalted Cyclops of the Lemon Grove Ku Klux Klan."
One communication, which, like the others, is laden with grammatical and spelling errors, demanded that Kaufman print the letter, a diatribe against the owner of a video shop ? described as Jewish ? who allegedly deals in pornographic materials.
A missive dated Dec. 1 railed against "elitist pure Jews at the top who work in hand with the Catholic Church, who actually willfully plan the downfall of Western Civilization."
Another section condemned the "Italian and Mafia-controlled Vatican" and "democratically nigger-controlled New York."
"They attack everybody but white Protestants," Kaufman commented.
Kaufman, who is not Jewish, said he blamed the first few letters on "just another whacko" until the fifth one came wrapped around a rock hurled through a window of his recently vacated office. He and his small staff had moved out of the rented quarters and are now publishing the Review from his home. Kaufman said the move was unrelated to the letters.
KKK graffiti also was scrawled on the vacated building.
"The message said that, because of my failure to publish its previous letters, the local Klan had held a tribunal in which they found me guilty of various things," Kaufman recalled.
"Guilty on all counts for your negligence and downplayment [sic] of the issues, thereby increasing the accepted insolence against [sic] our Bible and Constitution, not to mention your lack of publishing important letters . . . the sentence is DESTRUCTION!" the letter declared.
One letter was signed but Kaufman said he could not find the man's name in the phone book or through other sources, including the sheriff's department. Still another letter was signed by "Your friend at Beth Jacob" [a local synagogue], who suggested that Kaufman "appease" the Klan by publishing its letters.
"It was so obviously a fake that I didn't even bother checking with Beth Jacob," Kaufman said. "There wasn't even a letterhead and it was terribly written."
Still, Kaufman is taking the letters seriously.
"Everybody here is a little bit concerned," he told E&P. "I've taken precautions such as reporting the letters to the sheriff, putting a grill on my balcony to deflect missiles, and getting a fire extinguisher."
Kaufman replied, in a sense, to the letters with a Review cartoon headed "Cones of Sadness." The drawing shows a dunce cap, an upside down, melting ice cream cone, and a pointed Klan hood.
In an editorial, he wrote, "The Review will not be terrorized into publishing the hate messages of this cowardly group."
A Klan-signed letter to Gary Rosenberg, publisher of the Jewish Times, noted that awards have been offered for the arrest of "me and my colleagues" and then went on, "When you publish our letter and condemn [sic] or praise it you should let it be known that it is our intent to kill infiltrators of the KKK."
The Lemon Grove Review and the Jewish Times have each offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone on hate-crime charges.
The San Diego chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported it is not aware of a formal Ku Klux Klan group in the county but said there was a Klan unit in Lemon Grove several years ago.
"There is no way to know who they are," said Rosenberg in reference to the authors of the letters to the Review and Jewish Times. "It could be an individual crackpot, a publicity seeker, or the KKK itself."
Local ADL director Morris Caputo, in an interview with the Times, said, "The first thing the ADL recommends is that no one take these incidents lightly. You never know what type of individual or individuals you're dealing with. The very fact that there already has been violence against what was thought to be the Lemon Grove Review is an indication that violence is never far removed from the ideological makeup of people like this."
In recent years, various churches and synagogues in San Diego County, including Beth Jacob, have been desecrated with KKK and Nazi graffiti.