Twitter User, @marcklock, video / Detroit Pride
America is imploding with bigotry, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Add to that, a gun culture that is so rampantly obsessive that we have still not made one change to gun laws years after a crazed gunman shot up a classroom of 5-year-olds.
Welcome to America, where up is down, down is up, and the U.S. Constitution can be distorted by evil men to justify their acts of hatred against others. The National Socialist Movement (NSM), the group that disrupted the Detriot Pride parade today, are among those evil men.
NSM arrived at the parade, armed with guns, instigating trouble, inciting fear, ripping down pride flags, calling people in the crowd n*gg*r and f*gg*ts, declaring “White Power!,” and allegedly urinating on the Israeli flag. Oddly, none of that is what shocked me most. No. What made my jaw drop, was that the neo-nazis, complete with their buzz cuts, Sieg Heil salutes, Swastika flags and armbands, were being escorted through the parade by a designated police escort – compliments of the Detroit Michigan, PD.
Yes, you read that correctly. The police were on hand, in high numbers, to protect the neo-nazis who had nothing but mal intentions in denigrating the pride parade, as they spewed hatred and mocked the powerful legacy of the movement.
Newsweek reports that a Twitter user shared one woman’s anger. The NSM protestor could be heard yelling to the police, “Where was Detroit Police when armed Nazis were marching with their NAZI FLAG shouting Homophobic slurs, anti-black racism, and white nationalism you ask? –Serving and Protecting THE NAZIS!”
One Twitter User, @marcklock, Tweeted out a few seconds of video from the confrontation, in which protesters could be heard questioning the police, asking “Why do THEY get police protection and don’t? The police responded to that question, telling Detroit News they were only trying to keep the white nationalists and protestors apart. That may be the case but, instead, it appeared the police were there, literally, as a security force for the parade crashers. The optics of that are disturbing, and I feel the citizens of Detroit deserve better from their police department.
Getting back to the U.S. Constitution, it is under the guise of ‘freedom of speech’ that such hate groups are allowed to spew their divisive venom. As I see it, if they choose to do so, especially with a targeted disruption as what they did at Detroit’s Pride parade, city police should not protect them. Luckily, today, the faceoff between NSM and the protestors did not result in a physical altercation, only shouting. But what about next time? I have an idea to prevent an inevitable confrontation. Do not allow people to march with a purpose to harm; be it verbal or otherwise. The Constitution is a breathing, living document, and full of modifications that address ever-changing times. It should no longer be used as a gateway to allow hate to fester throughout the country.
Specifically, perhaps it is time to re-examine the First Amendment and add a “non-hate” clause because I’m relatively sure James Madison’s purpose in writing it was not to protect a bunch of revisionistic, trouble-making, vile, anti-societal derelicts.
