What Can a City Do When Neo-Nazis Start Marching Down Its Streets?
www.nytimes.com
The brazen appearance of white supremacist groups in Nashville left the city grappling with how to confront hateful speech without violating First Amendment protections.

The brazen appearance of white supremacist groups in Nashville left the city grappling with how to confront hateful speech without violating First Amendment protections.

They first arrived at the beginning of July: dozens of masked white supremacists, shuffling out of U-Hauls, to march through Nashville carrying upside-down American flags.

A week later, members of a separate neo-Nazi group, waving giant black flags with red swastikas, paraded along the city’s famed strip of honky-tonks and celebrity-owned bars. The neo-Nazis poured into the historic Metro courthouse to disrupt a City Council meeting, harassed descendants of Holocaust survivors and yelled racist slurs at young Black children performing on a downtown street.

The appearance of white nationalists on the streets of a major American city laid bare the growing brazenness of the two groups, the Patriot Front and the Goyim Defense League. Their provocations enraged and alarmed civic leaders and residents in Nashville, causing the city to grapple with how to confront the groups without violating free speech protections.

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  • P00ptart@lemmy.world
    4·
    4 months ago

    How do you do that, when they protest illegally? They go in without permits in u-hauls and just create chaos out of nowhere. It’s planned, but not in the public eye.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      Then it’s not a question of free speech, I suppose. I’m not from the US, but I assume that demonstrations have to be registered in your country too. If this is the case, the police can easily crack down, break up these illegal gatherings, impose fines and so on. I am of course aware that there are sympathizers among the police - but they have to abide by the law if they want to keep their jobs. I don’t understand why there is any need for a discussion about freedom of expression at all when these demonstrators just disrupt public order and try to intimidate people. That has nothing to do with freedom of speech - sound more like a felony to me.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
        3·
        4 months ago

        I absolutely agree but I’m many cases they hide behind masks and then take off before enough meaningful presence can be mustered against them, even in a big city like Nashville. These guys are cowards that rely on significant advantage of numbers and surprise to intimidate. Then take off before anybody has time to do anything about it.

        • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          4 months ago

          Well, that’s a real problem. In this case, there is probably nothing much to do but rely on the civil courage of citizens and hope that someone will at least take down the license plate number or that maybe a critical mass will form quickly enough to detain these idiots until the police arrives. I am glad that such actions by fascists do not (yet) exist in my country (Germany). In the city where I live, even a whole bunch of sad Nazis would have no fun at all if they tried something like that. But that can be quite different elsewhere in my home country too. I wish you the best of luck and hope that you find a way to deal with these morons. Be save!

          Edit: In Germany, this kind of behavior might be enough to be investigated for forming a terrorist organization - which is what is being attempted here: spreading terror. Perhaps you can collect signatures to persuade your representatives to take action.