Tennessee police on high alert for white nationalist and neo-Nazi rallies – By Lois Beckett (theguardian.com) / Oct 28 2017
As white supremacists prepared to rally in two small Tennessee towns on Saturday, local law enforcement was imposing strict security measures including the use of hand-held metal detectors to detect guns, pipes, chains and a long list of other banned objects.
Several white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups that marched in Charlottesville, Virginia in August were slated to rally in Shelbyville on Saturday morning and in Murfreesboro in the afternoon. Both small cities are a short drive south of Nashville, and have majority white populations.
The town of Murfreesboro had shut down several blocks around its public square, where a “White Lives Matter” rally was due to be held. Officials said they “strongly encouraged” residents to avoid the area “in the interest of reducing tension and avoiding conflicts”.
Earlier this month in Gainesville, Florida, an estimated 2,500 people protested a speech by the white nationalist Richard Spencer at the University of Florida. Elaborate security measures were not enough to prevent an act of violence that left three white supremacists charged with attempted homicide.
In Tennessee, the white nationalist groups were set to protest against a range of issues, including refugee resettlement, the impact of the opioid epidemic and what they say is a lack of media attention around a mass shooting in Antioch, Tennessee in September in which one woman was killed and seven people were injured. The suspect is black and reportedly came to the US from Sudan.
“The first amendment provides a right to free speech and a right to peaceably assemble and thus neither the city nor the county can legally prohibit the event,” the city of Murfreesboro said in a statement. The statement added that the city and county were “proud of the community we are building and the diversity of its residents”.
“The slightest indication of disruption or violence will initiate immediate law enforcement action to uphold the rights of citizens and ensure their safety,” Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh and Murfreesboro police interim chief Michael Bowen said.
A series of open white supremacist rallies in cities across the US has put American towns on edge, with city leaders fearful of violence and residents and business owners often resenting their towns being associated with neo-Nazis and other racist hate groups.
In Charlottesville, the largest white nationalist rally in decades sparked open fighting in the streets, with neo-Nazis wearing helmets and shields clashing with counter-protesters and being doused with bottles of urine.
One white supremacist was arrested for firing a gun towards protesters. The worst of the violence happened after the official rally was shut down, when a car plowed into a crowd in a narrow street. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old civil rights activist, was killed and 19 people were injured.
James Fields, the 20-year-old charged over the incident, was photographed at the rally demonstrating with Vanguard America, though the group has said he was not a member. Vanguard America was set to protest on Saturday in Tennessee.
“We’re not going to back down and be content to be closeted,” one Tennessee organizer wrote on the white nationalist blog Occidental Dissent earlier this month. “Instead, we are going to soldier on and move beyond what happened in Charlottesville. It has been a black cloud hanging over us ever since 12 August and we need to move forward.”
Matthew Heimbach, the leader of the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party, said he expected the protests to draw about the same number of people as a largely peaceful rally in Pikeville, Kentucky in April. That event brought together about 150 neo-Nazis and white supremacists, many of them armed, as well as more than 100 anti-fascist protesters, in a small town where residents voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.
“Most folks burned through a lot of vacation days” to get to the Charlottesville event, Heimbach said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/28/tennessee-white-lives-matter-neo-nazi-rallies
PB/TK – I truly believe anyone has their right to speak. I don’t care if you’re White, Black, Latino, Asian, Male, Female, caffeinated or decaf, you can speak your mind but once your voice turns violent, encourages violence of any sort against any sex, race, religion, business or authority you become mute and void. You say you bring weapons to defend yourself and so will your opposition to defend themselves as well. Authority (local police, private security, national guard) can only do so much to calm the herd inside and out
