Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy, who negotiated with the angry crowd, the Times reported. He worked out with residents that each would be allowed a turn to speak during the meeting.
Good for him.
"Residents in attendance blasted the city for allowing the âUnite the Rightâ rally to take place and called for the resignation of Mayor Mike Signer, chanting âSigner must go!â "
Wasnât the city under a court order to let the rally go on as initially planned after they tried to move it to a larger venue where crowd control would be easier?
Yeah, it would have been pretty bad if the whole council had walked out. Rightly or wrongly - and it sounds like rightly from what I´ve read - the city and the police did not do enough to prevent violence from the right-wingers. There needs to be some accountability for that failure.
I do have sympathy for the city as far as allowing the march in the first place. It was protected speech, after all, and there was a court ruling to that effect.
Residents in attendance blasted the city for allowing the âUnite the Rightâ rally to take place and called for the resignation of Mayor Mike Signer, chanting âSigner must go!â
The various supremacy groups are obviously repugnant. I'd be curious when applying for a permit whether you are actually required to inform the city how your demonstration will unfold, what will be said or shouted, who the targets of your ire or protest are. That smacks of prior restraint if the permit process is too intrusive. Claiming fears of incitement in wanting a group forbidden a permit is weak tea, since it's your choice to ignore them or not even attend or observe their rally.
I don't like Nazis and white supremacists, but I question the logistics and propriety of denying them their 1st Amendment rights.
Would we be OK with a town almost entirely dependent on the coal industry refusing a climate change group the right to gather and march? Should Reno, NV tell 1000 people from an anti-gambling society they're not welcome to voice their opinions as a group within city limits? Where do we draw lines when Constitutional rights are involved?Yes. But I donât know that the city sought to completely outlaw the protest until Saturday morning.
Myself, I donât think that allowing the protest was the problem. The problem was that UniteTheRight blatantly disregarded the terms of their permit and decided to terrorize the entire town. Thatâs not really a permitting issue.
ââŚa large sign reading, âBlood on your handsââŚâ
Every politician who endorsed Trump.
Every member of this administration.
Every journalist who joined the âHillaryâs Emails!â pile-on.
Every jackass who brayed, âTheyâre both the same!â
Every voter who pulled the âRâ lever knowing exactly who Trump was.
I have a sneaking suspicion if the Nazis/supremacists were getting their asses kicked and were being beaten up, the police wouldâve stepped in right away.
When one groupâs free speech denigrates or questions the continued existence of a group of humans based on the color of their skin, their religion, or their sexuality. Maybe that.
If your climate change group suggests protecting the planet via a genocide of coal workers or the anti-gambling group in Reno calls for the systematic internment of gamblers, then we might have an equivalency.
I think the fascists had a right to rally but they were clearly hoping to provoke a riot. It appeared that a large part of the problem was that the law enforcement response was ill-planned, insufficient and ineffective.
Well, sure. They probably had a bunch of people out on vacation. They had a rally (errâŚfamily event) to attend.
Um, no. Thousands of people and groups have prevailed in free speech fights saying things much more vile and repugnant than the crap you hear at a Nazi or Klan rally. For good or ill SCOTUS and the inferior courts take a dim view of limiting free expression.
Thatâs a good way to do it. You walk into a debate with a solid hand and superior position then act like assholes and blow it all. They got nothing done.
One should have been chosen to speak and the rest STFU and sit down. It was a simple position. âFolksâŚit was White Nationalists, Skin Heads, Nazis and KKK. What did you think was going to happen? A bake sale? You should have been ready at the get go for the worst. Thatâs what you are paid for and are sworn to doâ.
Then let them stumble around and make fools of themselves and their official positions. Whatâs the pointâŚsee who can be the biggest asshole?
When the local police left the synagogue unguarded, that was truly reprehensible. And there are many videos of groups of Nazis and racists beating up the opposition (never one-on-one, of course, because they are wimps), and you do not see a policeman in sight.
Well, I guess it wasnât as pressing a concern as some black kid walking down the street with iced tea and Skittles.
I do not believe direct calls for murder or genocide are protected by the first amendment. Other than that (and maybe a few more constraints, IANAL) the first amendment is pretty broad. And having lived half of my life in the USSR, a country where anti-semitism was (a) illegal; (b) rampant at both individual and government level, I believe that nearly unlimited reach of the First Amendment is not a weakness but one of the strengths of this country.
That gets into âwhatâs a direct call for genocide?â
For example:
Saying all ethnic New Jerseyans should be slaughtered? Protected speech.
Saying âgo slaughter all ethnic New Jerseyansâ? Not protected. In fact, itâs a pretty universal felony even before federal civil rights laws come into play.
âFree Speech Zonesâ well away from the activity being protested seem to past constitutional muster.
Why not corral white supremacists to their own little free speech zones away from decent people.
Or is that only ok, when liberals are those trying to exercise their free speech rights?
Alan Zimmerman, president of Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville:
âSoon, we learned that Nazi websites had posted a call to burn our synagogue.â
Textbook example.
Next?
More please.
AlthoughâŚI simply have to wonder how many of these people are going to fail to vote in 2018. Sigh.