A group of around thirty neo-Nazis marched through Washington on Saturday to protest against illegal immigration. One man who took part in the rally tells us why he's proud to hail Hitler, while a free speech activist explains why he has the right to say something that, in a European country, could have him put behind bars.
Posted by "World2theories" 20 April 08
"You will not stop us, you will not silence us!" one of the group members shouted at the thousands of angry counter protesters who turned up to boo them.
Video posted by Adam Schreck 20 April 08
Police presence was high and five counter protesters were arrested for allegedly assaulting the police (towards the second third of the video).
Charles Wilson is a member of the National Socialist Movement, the organisation that arranged the rally.
The march
was about immigration. We're trying to bring Americans to close our borders -
not just to Mexicans, but blacks too. There are several things blacks have that
we don't have. Like unions. We don't want to get rid of them, we just want them
to go home.
There was loads of violence at the protest - six counter protesters were arrested. We never get arrested. We like to do the right thing. They [counter protesters] fight with each other - all mixed races - they're like animals. You can take an animal out of the zoo but you can't take the zoo out of the animal!"
Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, which works to protect freedom of speech.
The First
Amendment protects all ideas even if they're repugnant, like this one. There
are some circumstances when actions can be stopped, but you'd have to prove
that violence would be the direct result in order to get a court order against
it happening. The First Amendment works by letting everybody have their own
view, good or bad, true or false, in order to test which ones prosper.
Sometimes it has happened that an idea has come to light that has been
regretted. And sometimes extreme groups do benefit from attention, such as the
Ku Klux Klan in the twenties. But on the whole free speech serves America very
well. There is also the benefit that when a repugnant idea is expressed it
sends a negative message to the public. In Europe
on the other hand, the system can produce mysterious groups. There's an
inherent problem with the government shutting down free speech - it may have
its own motives rather than those of the people."
Gabe Salgado, 18, participated in the counter-protest as member of a movement of clowns from western Massachusetts.
Me and a
group of friends from school went down with a clown troop. We reject the
ideology of the neo-Nazis, and there's something wrong with the First Amendment
when we can have neo-Nazis marching in the capital. However, we accept their
humanity. We're all people. The minute
you dehumanise people you step into dangerous territory."
Comments
Hailing Hitler on Capitol Hill
Submitted by Ton (not verified) on Thu, 24/04/2008 - 15:11.that first video was mad upsetting "the swastika means truth but to our enemies it means a whole load of things I wont get into right now" is that some loosely vailed reference to the deaths of millions of jews or some kind of threat?
It's a sad thing people never seem to learn from history and that America's consitution allows these ideas to flurish under the notion of free speech.
Unregistered user