ADL Letter to LA Times Criticizes County Supervisor Antonovich’s Nazi Analogy

  • February 12, 2014

The following letter was sent to the Los Angeles Times:

February 7, 2014

To the editor:

The Times got it right — the Supervisors should not spend precious public resources to defend in court their recent wrongheaded decision to add a cross to the county seal.  (“Why is L.A. County picking a fight over a cross on its seal?” Feb 7).

Also mentioned in a related article (“Cross on Seal Prompts Lawsuit,” Feb. 6) was Supervisor Antonovich’s reference to the ACLU as “storm troopers” in his statement decrying the lawsuit.

Shame on him.  To equate the ACLU with the Nazi paramilitary group in Germany that attacked people because of their religion or political views is vicious. As a child and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, I am deeply offended by this comparison.

Antonovich may disagree with the position taken by the ACLU but he owes this venerable civil rights group – and the residents of LA County whom he serves – an apology for his poor choice of words.

Amanda Susskind, Pacific Southwest Regional Director

Anti-Defamation League

Los Angeles