Neo-Nazis Rally In Valley Forge

[sffreeways]

I remember an increase of this kind of crap when Poppy was president. I haven't seen this since then. I did live in San Francisco for 14 years so I wouldn't have seen it there. There are surrounding communities in Northern California that have some Neo Nazis but I don't recall any blatant displays such as this.

I watched this report on the local news this evening and I could not believe my eyes. The last time I saw this was during Poppys reign when the KKK marched down Main Street. I deeply believe these groups are emboldened by the climate this administration has created. They are comfortable enough to pull a stunt like this off in of all places Valley Forge.

What gets me is the amount of police protection these idiots get. I don't understand why the government feels it's neccesary to protect these groups like they do. There were helicopters and swat teams and police in riot gear in a park. And we have to pay for it.

I understand that they have the right to express this garbage but I don't understand why they get so much protection. It always seems like government sanction to me and I believe they probably view it as such.

They put people protesting this disgusting war in cages. If you protest the republicans you have to do it in a cage a half a mile away. Mrs. Neiderer was dragged off for speaking to reporters about her objections to this war yet these fascists get an entire section of an historical park to wave the Nazi flag.

When is America going to wake the hell up ? I'm disgusted.

Sep 25, 2004 5:54 pm US/Eastern
VALLEY FORGE, PA (AP) About 100 neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan supporters shouted white supremacist slogans from an amphitheater stage at Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday, while twice as many counter-demonstrators heckled back from a nearby hillside.

Jeff Schoep, 30, of Minneapolis, commander of the National Socialist Movement, launched the rally with an attack on Jews, who he said planned "the destruction of all races through the evils of race mixing."

Speaker after speaker repeated the theme, with many attacking the war in Iraq as "Israel's war."

"For 40 years, Israel has sought to get American forces on the ground in the Middle East," said Clifford Herrington, a former NSM chairman.

The speeches were punctuated with shouts of "White power!" and "Sieg heil!" from the mostly male participants, many of whom wore brown shirts and swastikas.

Counter-demonstrators, in a cordoned-off area several hundred feet away, returned shouts of "Bull!" and waved placards with slogans such as, "Get out of our melting pot."

http://kyw.com/news/local_story_269122207.html

For the video scroll down halfway

http://www.kyw.com/

Wearing hoods and swastikas, about 100 neo-Nazis from around the country gathered in Valley Forge National Historical Park yesterday to rail against what they perceive as the erosion of the rights of white people.

Yards away, several hundred counterprotesters tried to out-shout the white supremacists by chanting, "You've got to beat back the racist attacks." In among the counterprotesters were a handful of others who had come to see the spectacle, some sympathetic to the neo-Nazi cause, others merely curious.

But the neo-Nazis, who included members of the National Socialist Movement, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Aryan Nations, had a public address system that drowned out all but their words and the thump of a police helicopter overhead.

"The Constitution was written by white men alone. Therefore, it was intended for whites alone," said Jeff Schoep, commander of the National Socialist Movement, a Minneapolis-based group that organized the 90-minute rally.

When the public address system went down about 10 minutes into Schoep's remarks, his supporters extended their arms and shouted "Sieg Heil" until the glitch was fixed.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/9761653.htm?1c

During the interview I watched as a toothless dirtball was telling the journalist that "America only understands violence and we are a violent group, as time goes on we will become more and more violent. We are going to commit violence to get our message out"

The report doesn't justify the images on televison. This was a well organized event. They had uniforms on. Black uniforms with the Nazi symbols. All looked very threatening.

No arrest, no nothing.

[Tempest]

1. White supremacists set up booth at Mississippi state fair

Group With White Supremacist Ties To Set Up Booth At State Fair

http://www.thejacksonchannel.com/news/3756365/detail.html

The Mississippi State Fair opens in two weeks, but it's already losing money.

A group with ties to the white supremacist movement, called the Nationalist Movement, is planning to set up an information booth at the fair -- a plan that's driving away some businesses and customers.

[steely]

2. Saw some local coverage on TV last night - they didn't

put a good light on it. They got Schoep "walking the grounds" the day before - shirtless beer belly and all - not flattering. A black jouurnalist covered it - the last thing they had on tape was Schoep saying they loved to "...hate, hate...", and then they cut to another scene.

It was covered with some urgency - to my mind, although they did say he had it right = as if to say 'can you believe it'?

The grounds were covered with portable barriers.

Free speech is one thing - but preaching hate?

[Peak_Oil]

3. So... I'm going to guess that you're against really really free speech.

If you don't defend it for the white power movement, you don't defend it for the naacp, anti-defamation, etc.

And nobody cares what these whackjobs have to say anyway. I bet there were the nazis, the antis, and about four bored unemployed people there to see what all the fuss was about.

I'm 100% behind free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to be a nutjob, freedom to publicly exclude myself from holding any political office for the rest of my life by marching around in old military uniforms saying nasty things...

Anyway, that's my take.

[sffreeways]

4. You missed my point

I said specifically I understood the right to express the crap they were spewing.

The problem I have with the event was

A. The amount of police protection

B. The freedom they have to be at Valley Forge out in the open in the Ampi Theater vs. the people that want to protest Bush being caged in first amendment zones.

I care about what they have to say. They were advocating/insighting domestic terrorism and I happen to live in the neighborhood. And I'm concerned that this kind of thing is on the rise.

And if you read the article and/or followed the link you would have read that there was a pretty large group of people there.

There also was a group of Black Panthers that showed up with baseball bats.

[Peak_Oil]

6. I got your points.

As far as police protection, it sounds like they needed it so the place didn't break out into a melee. Some angry neighbors showed up with bats? I'm glad the cops were there to protect the mighty nazis.

And I would be concerned with their freedom to be out in the open, too. They should be allowed to assemble wherever they want to exercise their free speech.

Anywhere they want.

And, we should exercise our rights to assemble and celebrate our freedom of speech anwhere WE want. ANYWHERE. Including anywhere we want in NYC, and that we should be spared the indignity of being roped up in orange safety netting and captured like a fucking TUNA FISH... and most definitely not like a citizen of the United States expects to be treated here at home. And if angry neighbors come OUR way with baseball bats, I will be very happy the police would be there to protect me from the angry mob that gathers around ME.

[kodi]

7. horse$hit. the naacp & ADL dont advocate violent overthrow of government

if you have never dealt with white supremicists you had better learn more about these people and stop posting stupid things. free speech stops when it advocates the violent overthrow of the government.

[kodi]

5. i walked valley forge park often as a teen. nazis there is a disgrace

i would have pulled a blues brothers on those bastards if i still lived in montgomery county. they are a disgrace to the sacrifices the men endure there in 1776-7.

[Zomby Woof]

8. another reason they increased during Bush I

Nazi groups flourish when the economy sours and they fall back on the "disenfranchised white man" crap and accompanying scapegoating. The depression in Weimar Germany gave rise to the original Nazis, and the downturns of both Bushes' economic records does likewise here.

I do not disavow the reasons you cited, but I did want to add my own, which is crucial.

[0rganism]

9. What I find fascinating is how the cops just loooove these guys

They'll go out of their way to make absolutely certain that a KKK chapter or a White Power group gets to march through a Jewish suburb. But if a group of anti-war activists were to do the same thing, you can bet the cops would respond with tear gas and pepper spray.

[tom_paine]

10. Exactly. n/t

[Romulus]

11. BINGO!!!

But try to get that point across to the police-boot-lickers we have here at DU, and I'll wish you well . . .