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submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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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[-] Reality_Suit@lemmy.one 136 points 3 months ago

If you punch a nazi, and you get two friends to punch a nazi and then they get two friends to punch nazis, before you know it, everyone is punching nazis.

[-] CaptainKickass@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

My favorite shampoo commercial, even better

[-] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

You can't go around punching cops.

[-] Enkrod@feddit.org 15 points 3 months ago

You're not allowed to, but you definitely can.

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[-] CaptainKickass@lemmy.world 92 points 3 months ago

Make the world a better place

Punch a Nazi in the face

[-] AnalogJack@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago
[-] Facebones@reddthat.com 9 points 3 months ago

My ex worked at a local screen printing shop, and I hung out there a lot and made some cash during big orders. I went to the owner with a simple "punch more nazis" design I made stoned, half jokingly asked him to burn the design so my ex could print it for me.

It was the business version of that genie "thats dope you still have 3 wishes" meme - "yea I'll burn it in the morning you know where the extras (leftover unused shirts) are 🤷‍♂️"

We never got along super well but we knew where we agreed lmao

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 80 points 3 months ago

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 neo-Nazis poured into the historic Metro courthouse to disrupt a City Council meeting,

Arrest. Them. Holy shit, that's something that in any reasonably sized city would be worth at least a night in jail to cool off, even if you were some fucking normie instead of a neonazi fuck. It's not that fucking hard.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

Arrest them for what exactly? Is disrupting a city council meeting anything but a civil infraction?

I don't want this sort of thing going on, but what law would justify jail time?

I mean maybe they did do something to justify it, but I don't know that disrupting a city council meeting should land people in jail. People also disrupt city council meetings when they try to pass anti-queer ordinances. And they should.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 69 points 3 months ago

Arrest them for what exactly? Is disrupting a city council meeting anything but a civil infraction?

Criminal trespass, easy. Fuck, that's levied all the time as a club against left-wing protesters. Yet when actual neonazis show up, they get nothing? Fuck that.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 months ago

Criminal trespass...

Most city council meetings are legally open to the public. It is in fact their main purpose.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

I think the answer to that is not 'also arrest the Nazis,' it's 'don't arrest the left-wing protesters either.'

Balancing the scales doesn't solve the problem.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago

Balancing the scales doesn’t solve the problem.

And neither does playing by the gentleman's rules of boxing when your opponent is using brass knuckles. Fucking "They go low, we go high"? Did we not learn our lesson? If a weapon is used, the correct answer is to make the opposition see why that weapon was banned in the first place - it's the same reason why many signatories of the Geneva Protocol allow for retaliation if chemical weapons are used against them.

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Balancing the scales doesn’t solve the problem.

Good point: the correct answer is, don't treat them equally, because they don't act equally. What we should be doing is exactly the opposite of what we are doing: fucking-up the NAZIs while leaving the left-wing protestors alone.

This is not hypocrisy, by the way. This is a simple application of consequences: those who do not respect the social contract do not deserve to be protected by it.

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[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 19 points 3 months ago

After seeing federal agents literally kidnapping people off the streets of Portland for "looking like protesters," yes absolutely they can arrest them even if the charges are bullshit or won't stick.

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[-] Nougat@fedia.io 11 points 3 months ago

Civil disobedience can get you arrested, and while you might beat the rap, you can't beat the ride.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Both you and @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world are arguing the same point. The only difference is @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world wants nobody arrested and you want to also arrest the Nazis.

First of all ACAB let it be known. However I think it's more likely to get a local city council to allow for anyone using intimidating imagery, (defined by swastika and similar iconography) to be detained and removed from chambers. It's been done elsewhere with great effect.

The issue is how to get it enforced because unfortunately, those that burn crosses are the same that join forces.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/long-painful-history-police-brutality-in-the-us-180964098/

https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/54960/public-display-of-swastika-in-the-us

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/germanys-laws-antisemitic-hate-speech-nazi-propaganda-holocaust-denial/

[-] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 67 points 3 months ago

Treat them like our American predecessors did. If they're wearing swastikas then shoot the fuckers.

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[-] fpslem@lemmy.world 65 points 3 months ago

For starters, it can not arrest the bartender that punched a nazi after that nazi started a fight.

https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/dont-just-stand-by-man-recounts-being-hit-by-neo-nazi-protesters/

My dude didn't deserve to be arrested, he deserved to drink for free throughout Lower Broadway!

[-] Coach@lemmy.world 50 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I don't give a flying fuck about a Nazi's First Amendment rights, just like they don't give a flying fuck about anyone else's rights.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 46 points 3 months ago

Jake and Elwood knew how to handle it.

[-] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 43 points 3 months ago

Arrest them for an unlawful assembly like they do to everyone else they don't want marching.

[-] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

No, that's only for black people and Muslims. "Unlawful" assembly for neo-nazis is just met with a shrug.

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[-] AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 40 points 3 months ago

Gather up all of your neighbors and go punch some Nazi trash.

[-] Hptyhop84@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago

The greatest generation knew how to deal with Nazis. Flamethrowers, bombs, artillery & bayonets. That's all the conversation needed.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago

No, no, you see, war is bad, therefore, we should take the high road and let the Nazis slaughter us while we lodge diplomatic complaints at the UN in the hope of getting them to stop, eventually, someday. /s

[-] billiam0202@lemmy.world 29 points 3 months ago

Point.

Laugh.

Call them "weird".

Make them realize how unpopular they really are.

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

Briefly, then go all out ignoring them

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[-] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 24 points 3 months ago

Laugh at and ridicule them. Make it very clear that you aren't scared of them and that they're rejects of society who amount to nothing. Take away their sense of power and they'll leave. It's worked in the past on several occasions.

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[-] resin85@lemmy.ca 23 points 3 months ago
[-] magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org 21 points 3 months ago

Why are you asking questions the mods won't let me answer?

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

There was a Nazi rally/anti-protest in my city like a year or so ago and all the LGBTQ+ people (including my sister and I) showed up to protest their bullshit with 3 times as many people and shut that shit down hard.

But it still pisses me off the city allowed those pricks to even gather in the first place.

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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago

In 1943-45, you just shot them.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 19 points 3 months ago

I vote snipers.

Aim for the hoods.

This is why I don't get to run a town, but I stand by my opinion here.

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[-] Birch@sh.itjust.works 14 points 3 months ago
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[-] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Reload when it goes "click".

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

This is a good start: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/r_UP_EiXwKA

May I also suggest setting up rotten vegetable stands at the farmer's markets?

[-] LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 12 points 3 months ago

They are being disruptive in a way that isn't kind; arrests would be the best way to deal with them. They are white nationalists, shouting slurs at black people who are fellow citizens in the USA, we should not let them believe this behavior will go unpunished. It will make it worse in the future, enabling hate groups to thrive is something a sane country should never allow.

[-] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Beat the ever loving shit out of them. Remember, you didn't see anything.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

There are several amendments for that

[-] AnarchistsForKamala@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

turn a blind eye to the black bloc stalking them

[-] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 months ago
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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
243 points (97.6% liked)

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