Comment on Headline: I don’t know if swarm is the right word, I think that implies they entered the home? I guess a group of insects is a swarm whether it’s inside or out. They had their Nazi party in the street, and the governor’s home is protected at all times by state police.
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Dozens of Neo-Nazis demonstrated outside the home of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) on Saturday night, in an intimidating display of hate. Members of the group NSC-131 — which seeks to create a white-only ethnostate in New England — marched Saturday night through the Boston suburb of Arlington, uniformed in khakis, black jackets, face masks, and baseball caps.
The NSC-131 members moved under cover of darkness, co-opting the progressive activist chant, “Whose streets? Our streets!” The neo-Nazis then lined up on the sidewalk across the street from the Healey’s home, which was protected by state troopers. The group’s members lit red traffic flares, and held these aloft with stiff arm Hitler salutes. They unfurled a banner reading: “WE’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE.”
The action by NSC-131 was an in-the-streets response to civil rights charges brought against the group by the state late last year. A 26-page complaint was lodged by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell (D) in December. Campbell denounced the group’s efforts to “target and terrorize people across Massachusetts and interfere with their rights,” and insisted the state of Massachusetts is dedicated to “holding this neo-Nazi group and its leaders accountable.”
That legal complaint hits NSC-131 for actions that “unlawfully target and disrupt LGBTQ+ events,” including drag queen story hours; “unlawfully target immigrants based on race and national origin,” including by trespassing at hotels where asylum seekers have been offered temporary housing; “unlawfully attack members of the public,” with frequent brawling at NSC-131 marches; and for numerous efforts to “disrupt public peace and safety.”
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Maura Healy was an aggressive lawyer for a long time before she was governor. I’m sure the AG is no exception.
Interesting that they think they are the ones not going anywhere in the state where America drew its first breath of liberty. Fuck Nazis.
Courts have repeatedly ruled that actions and expression can be a form of speech. Art, for instance, can be considered a form of free speech.
The law generally draws the line when that speech begins to harm others directly. There’s the old “yelling fire in a crowded theater” example. If a reasonable person would know their speech could directly lead to others being harmed, the courts may decide to restrict it. For the above example, a reasonable person could expect someone to end up getting trampled in a panicked evacuation, and therefore could be held responsible for that person’s injuries/death if they used their right to free speech to falsely incite that panic. This is why threats of violence are illegal, and aren’t covered by free speech.
But the issue is that the Nazi salute isn’t directly harmful by itself. Yes, it carries a lot of historical and social significance. But it’s not a direct threat of violence in and of itself; It becomes an implicit threat when coupled with other factors, (like being in an angry torch-wielding mob,) but by itself it’s harmless, (at least as far as the courts determine harm. Remember that they don’t factor hurt feelings into that harm.) So the courts have historically allowed it to be covered as free speech. Banning the salute would be like banning the word “punch”. Sure it may be illegal to tell someone “I’m going to punch your fucking lights out” because that’s a threat of violence. But the individual word is just a word.
But it’s also important to remember that the freedom of speech only protects people from government infringement. It doesn’t protect you from social consequences. A common argument when a Nazi gets called out is “well it’s my freedom of speech.” Sure, but that doesn’t stop people from ostracizing you for it. It doesn’t stop an employer from firing you for it. It doesn’t stop your friends and family from disowning you for it. It doesn’t stop random passersby from hating you for it. If the only argument for your speech is “the government can’t legally stop me” then you probably don’t have a good justification for it.