The administration of Mayor Kurt Schmoke has reversed itself and approved a parade permit for a white supremacist ``skinhead'' group rather than face a threatened court challenge. Deputy City Solicitor Ambrose Hartman said the city reluctantly approved the permit Monday, despite objections from community leaders, after concluding it could not win should the group sue on the grounds that its right to free speech was being denied. The group, known as BASH, or Baltimore Area Skin Heads, said it wants to protest the arrival of Soviet Jews in the United States and would march within a month. The Baltimore Sun quoted an unidentified member of the group as saying the group selected a predominately white, working-class area of Baltimore called Hampden because it is ``one of the last white neighborhoods around.'' The group wants Marylanders to take a stand against race-mixing and what they say are other threats to white power, he said. Eleven churches, community organizations and other Hampden civic groups asked the city to deny the permit after learning of the planned rally last month. Referring to two wealthier Baltimore neighborhoods, the Rev. David Rimbach, pastor of the Hampden United Methodist Church, said: ``They're not going to parade though Roland Park or Charles Village, they are going to parade through Hampden, because they think it's a place of hate and violence. ``We don't want to be painted with those kind of colors any more,'' he said Wednesday. Skinheads are known for their shaved heads, heavy boots and Nazi insignia. They have been linked to racial and religious crime in more than two dozen states. ``What we resent more than anything is it adds to the reputation for intolerance we've gotten over the years,'' said Edward R. Jeunette Jr., past president of the Hampden Community Council. He said it ``doesn't represent a majority view of the people who live here.''
