Jail for pizza man who barred Germans [and French]

Telegraph (UK) ^ | 8-21-03 | Julian Isherwood

[Pharmboy]

A Danish pizzeria owner who refused to sell pizzas to Germans or Frenchmen because of their governments' stance on the war in Iraq is to go to prison.

An appeal court upheld the conviction yesterday of Niels-Aage Bjerre for discrimination and his fine of £500. He said he would refuse to pay and will instead spend eight days in jail.

"I will not pay the fine but I'll do the time instead," said Bjerre. "It is a matter of principle."

He has closed his pizzeria, on the Danish holiday island of Fanoe rather than be forced to serve German and French nationals.

Bjerre instituted the boycott in February and was reported to the authorities after an incident three months later when he found that a couple he had served was German.

Then Bjerre promptly retrieved their pizzas, returned their money and told them to leave.

He said yesterday that both the courts and those who had reported him to the authorities were "traitors".

"The judges have chosen to support those who do not support the official Danish position on the war against Iraq."

His boycott would end only "if the governments of France and Germany change their attitude toward the United States and support Washington wholeheartedly," he added.

After he has served his sentence in an open prison, which is unlikely to take place for at least another two months due to overfilled Danish jails, Bjerre said he planned to sell frozen pizzas over the internet, hopefully to the American market.

"My internet home page will say quite clearly: no pizzas for the Germans," he warned.

[Pharmboy]

There is nothing like a Dane...

[Ex-Dem]

Give him political asylum and let him open up a pizza franchise.

[JoJo Gunn]

I remember hearing Boortz talk to him a while back. The man has conviction, which of course ruptures the bladders of power-crazed Leftists.

[Consort]

We're beating this story to death.

[Pharmboy]

I checked...we had not covered his doing hard time AFAIK. If you find this latest twist, I stand corrected.

[muawiyah]

There are ever more permutations of events and this story should continue to be covered.

I haven't seen, for example, an interview with the Germans from whom he retrieved his pizzas. That would be interesting. Might even tell us if anybody actually complained, or if this was just an invention of an fevered mind in a bureaucrat worried about another German invasion (and all that entails, jackboots, spiked helmets, take the sugar out of the pastry batter, and turn the pigs into sausages).

[Consort]

OK, we're kneading it to death.

[Concentrate]

I hadn't even heard of this event before. It's a good story.

[King Prout]

BY FAR the worst pizza I have EVER had was in Copenhagen's Tivoli amusement park.
I vowed I would never touch Dane-made pizza again.
This man's courageous stand has impressed me enough that I'll rescind that ban.

[Bonaparte]

This man belongs over here, not in that socialist hell hole.

[Pharmboy]

Danish pizza? Sounds weird to begin with...

[Truth29]

Bad memory altert: Wasn't there also an incident with a French or German restauranteur who refused to serve Americans during the war? What happened in that incident?

[Pharmboy]

Yes...I seem to remember a story along those lines. I don't think there was much follow-up.