I read the article in Newsweek about the criticism of the Charlottesville police not providing security for a Synagog which was named in Nazi propaganda encouraging Nazis to burn it down and if an investigation into it shows that the police were negligent, there should be consequences for that failure. But the police had tried to prevent the rally from happening in the way it did and, I'm certain, that many, perhaps most of the police would have rather it didn't happen at all. Just as I'm reading criticism of the police and the local and state politicians, I'm reading very little in the way of criticism for the judges, justices and lawyers who permitted it to happen as it did, in the way the Nazis wanted it to, where it happened and when it happened.
But police and local and even state resources aren't infinite, they aren't and can't be pretended to be 100% efficacious in protecting us, especially when they are hemmed in from doing so by lawyers and judges, even against the best will and experience of the police. Even when the people they are supposed to protect us against are armed with automatic weapons that lawyers and judges have made it legal for them to have.
There has been some criticism of the criticism of the ACLU from the media jerks who have a knee jerk "can do nothing wrong" attitude toward the ACLU because of its past, successful PR. It's really a bad idea to let that kind of PR turn into a habit that shields groups that go to court to enable Nazis the KKK and white supremacists, the gun industry, the gun nuts, the billionaires who, having with the ACLU's help had their billions of dollars declared protected "speech", etc. Really, when do the lawyers who make up the ACLU have to answer for their history of enabling the worst of the worst WHICH DOESN'T MAKE UP IN ANY WAY FOR THE "OTHER SIDE" ADVOCACY THEY DO. Glenn Greenwald, with all of his baggage in enabling the election of Trump, etc. his cosy relationship with people associated with Putin, was one of the typical jerks who holds up the ACLU as beyond reproach and above criticism. You can look up that jerk yourself if you need verification.
In looking at stuff to prepare for writing this post, I came across this headline, with at Charlottesville, VA byline,
ACLU criticizes ‘militaristic’ police response at KKK protest
which I had to rub my eyes at, though, reading the story, it was from the police response to a KKK rally in Charlottesville in July. several weeks before they joined with the right-wing Rutherford Institute on behalf of the Nazis last week. You might consider who they were criticizing for trying to keep the public order in Charlottesville last month with what's being said now.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and other groups are asking Gov. Terry McAuliffe to investigate police’s response when protesters gathered in Charlottesville to condemn a Ku Klux Klan rally.
The ACLU, Legal Aid Justice Center, Rutherford Institute and National Lawyers Guild Central Virginia Chapter sent a letter to McAuliffe this week criticizing what they called the “outsized and militaristic” police presence to the July 8 protest.
About 1,000 protesters showed up near the Charlottesville park where a small group of Klansman planned a rally.
In the letter, the groups questioned the appropriateness of police’s use of tear gas and riot gear, among other things. They say the “aggressive display” didn’t help deescalate tensions between protesters and Klansman.
The groups sent a similar letter to Charlottesville officials.
Contrast that with what happened after they got the court injunction permitting an even bigger, even more inflammatory rally last weekend.
The injunction was filed early Friday by civil rights organizations American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Albemarle County-based Rutherford Institute.
“Based on the current record, the court concludes that Kessler has shown that he will likely prove that the decision to revoke his permit was based on the content of his speech,” Conrad wrote. “Kessler’s assertion in this regard is supported by the fact that the city solely revoked his permit but left in place the permits issued to counter-protestors.”
Conrad said information presented at the hearing indicated the city’s decision was “based on the content of his speech” rather than public safety factors.
Considering what happened, that was obviously not true, the ACLU and the other lawyers, as they so often do in this, minimized the danger of what they were advocating.
You should read the whole article in light of what happened, remembering the ACLU complaints about the police after the earlier rally. Here is what the ACLU spokesman said after the injunction was issued but before what happened as a result of their advocacy.
“We are grateful that the court recognized that the First Amendment applies equally to everyone, regardless of their views,” said Claire Gastañaga, ACLU of Virginia executive director.
“We hope that the city will focus tomorrow on managing the expected crowds using de-escalation tactics and flexibility, and avoid the kind of over-militarized response that was mounted on July 8,” she said. “We encourage everyone participating to commit to nonviolence and peaceful protest. We will be there to observe and document police practices as we were on July 8 and at other rallies and protests across Virginia since January and before.”
And now it's the police, city officials and the Governor who are taking the heat and not the lawyers and judges who are most responsible for creating the conditions that led to violence.
The impunity that lawyers, those of the Rutherford Institute, of the ACLU, of other, lesser parts of the "free speech" industry who go to court to enable the opponents of equality and democracy and who would, as mentioned earlier this morning, sweep aside the First Amendment as soon as they took power, needs to end. The ACLU is one of those groups which have been far too successful in turning themselves into a sacrosanct institution when they are just a bunch of lawyers with an ideological position which, when it clashes with reality, they will refuse to take responsibility for the results.
I said "no more after Skokie" and they've been doing worse, enabling worse, since then. They are advocates for Nazis and white supremacists. They need to own up to that.
Update: Contrast what the same ACLU lawyers are saying now, trying to have it every which way, depending on what resulted from their advocacy.
ACLU Of Virginia Criticizes Law Enforcement In Charlottesville As ‘Not Effective’
These people, this ACLU, have essentially the same sense of personal responsibility as Donald Trump, always trying to put the responsibility for what they did on other people. They don't deserve support, they don't deserve donations, they don't deserve to be taken as responsible people.
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