1y ago

Neo-Nazis march in Nashville, leave after being challenged

www.nbcnews.com

The group left in a U-Haul box truck that was driven out of the county, police said, indicating the demonstrators were outsiders.

A small group of neo-Nazis marched in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, drawing a few vocal opponents and ultimately leaving following a "challenge," police said.

The demonstrators, all men, wore red, long-sleeve T-shirts and black pants, and some carried black Nazi flags, according to verified social media video from the scene.

"Neo-Nazi demonstrators ... carried flags with swastikas, walked around the Capitol and parts of downtown Saturday afternoon," Nashville police said in a statement.

No arrests were reported, and the group left in a U-Haul box truck that ultimately exited greater Nashville, police said, indicating the demonstrators may have been from out of town.

"Some persons on Broadway challenged the group, most of whom wore face coverings," the department said. "The group headed to a U-Haul box truck, got in, and departed Davidson County."

193 comments

People need to start taking the paradox of tolerance seriously.
- "How do I compromise with someone who wants to put me standing at a wall and shoot me? Stand sideways?"
  
  The compromise is to put them in jail.
  They want to kill you, so instead of killing them, just jail them.
  I know it was rhetorically, just wanted to give that answer.
- The way I see it if very simple. The umbrella of tolerance only stretches over the people who agree to support it. If you are someone who subscribes to an ideology of intolerance you cannot expect to be protected by the very thing you are trying to eliminate.
- I call it the treaty model, they broke it, so they're not under its protection.
- Is there a general paradox of compromise, where the assumption that everything has a middle ground is wrong? The paradox of intolerance would be a specific example, but there is also the idea that common ground can always be found between two opposing sides.
  For example someone against the death penalty because the courts keep putting innocent people on death row aren't going to compromise on some acceptable number of innocent people dying.
  Edit: bunch of morons downvoting because they apparently assume the worst in someone being curious while still on topic. Someone answered that what I was looking for was the Golden Mean Fallacy.
  
  Tolerance of intolerance breeds intolerance. It’s the ‘Nazi Bar’ scenario.
  You run a bar. One day, a blatantly obvious Nazi comes in, be he keeps to himself and doesn’t bother anyone. A week later, he comes back but he has some Nazi friends with him. You notice some of your regular patrons get up and leave. Over time, the number of Nazis that show up to your bar increases while the number of regular customers dwindles to nothing. Without intending it, you now have a Nazi bar. If you’d have just kicked the first Nazi out, it wouldn’t have happened.
  
  Maybe the golden mean fallacy
  
  While I understand that you actually wanted to ask about a specific theory, it did not come out very well.
  The neo-nazis are everywhere, getting more and more in the open, and it's getting very scary for many people.
  So I don't question why they buried you with downvotes.
  I wish there was an easy solution to this problem, and I worry a lot about what is to come.
  
  For example someone against the death penalty because the courts keep putting innocent people on death row
  I know it’s not the point of your comment but that’s not the only reason people are against the death penalty.
  
  That's probably the worst example you can give.
Police doing police shit: "They drove away ... indicating that we think they were outsiders." Uhauls can be rented and picked up anywhere. Pigs won't lift a finger to stop nazis.
- It's gonna be awkward at home and at work when they arrest people they know.
  
  You forgot about when they get together in the social club later.
  
  "It's just a prank bro!"
- It's not their job, our constitution protects nazi protestors the same way it protects climate protestors. The right to assembly.
  Confronting these things is our job, as citizens. Not the police's job. If they weren't causing any trouble, then the police are supposed to let them be, for better or for worse.
  
  I think the thing in this case is that it is the job of police to pull over a box truck full of human cargo. The implication here is so you think they'd have let a truck they knew was full of immigrants just drive away?
  
  It's not cops job to pull over dozens of people not following traffic laws like wearing a seatbelt?
  Sure seems like it's literally their job, but they just didn't want to do it when it Nazis. Wonder why that is?
  
  If they weren’t causing any trouble, then the police are supposed to let them be, for better or for worse.
  It's neat that this is a consideration now that it benefits nazis.
  
  You're almost there. Yes their primary role is to protect capital interests through systemic oppression. They selectively enforce certain laws over others.
  They will beat down peaceful leftist and progressive demonstrations through the enforcement of petty law breaking like jay walking. I've been witness to this. They could do this here but they choose not to because capitalism requires systemic racism.
  
  Nazi ideology is explicit violent and encourages murder of non-white people and others, there is no constitutional protection for literally threatening someone's life even if only through words.
  If you menancingly say to someone "I'm going to kill you" you can be charged with a crime for that in the US. Supporting Naziism is little different than saying "I encourage the murder of Jews and other non-Aryans."
  
  Nazis marching are an explicit threat to all minorities and queer people. It should be treated as any other threat of violence is- as a violation of the law and disallowed.
  
  You are right of course.
  I don't think the Constitution should protect them. Hell, I don't even think laws against murder should protect them.
  But they do. If they break the law, throw the book at them. Until then, it's our job to try and change the law or fight them on other fronts, such as in civil court, like they are doing in Massachusetts.
  
  Childish take.
  Tolerance will never extend to protect intolerance. Hate and violence will never be considered protected. It's not "for better or worse" douche, it's for WORSE because they are a violent hate group that wants to kill. Is this really so hard to comprehend?
Nobody thinks it's weird they didn't rent a bus? They rented a UHaul box truck and just piled in and sat on the floor? Folding chairs? Like this sounds like some low budget human trafficking cosplay.
- It's because they want to be able to hide. You see a bus, not only do you know it's full of people but you can often see through the windows, and they can see you. A box truck is a stealthier way to move those people, and it also prevents a bunch of wanna-be tacticool fascist shitfucks from seeing the crowd telling them to emulate their hero and kill themselves.
  
  It could just be way cheaper too
- It seems like a really reckless way to travel. Those things don't open from the inside. If their driver was somehow incapacitated or if someone were to put a lock on the back latch, the nazis in that uhaul would be in serious jeopardy.
  But even without that consideration, the idea of getting into a cramped unventilated vehicle that wasn't designed for humans and trusting a nazi to transport you anywhere seems ill-advised.
  
  Nazis are historically stupid. Modern Nazis aren't any different
  
  They are neo-Nazis, thinking skills are not one of their strong suits. If the Nazis actually came back they'd have them all executed (like they did last time) because these people are useless. They are all far too self-important to follow orders, and too thick for command.
  
  So what you're saying is, "keep taking uhauls Nazis"?
  
  I mean, if you could think of any group that would put a pile of people in an insafe unventilated box Nazi is pretty high up there.
  I say they should do it again.
  
  https://youtu.be/nHR5GlPPqQ0
- Which seems illegal. Why couldn't they have been pulled over and at least cited for not wearing a seatbelt?
  
  Who would be available to cite them? All the cops are in the back of the U-Haul.
  
  Someone would have had to call it in that saw them getting out (or piling in), otherwise nobody knows what's inside.
- Is that even legal? Shouldn't the cops ticket them all for unsafe travel and make them take a bus home?
  
  Some of those that work forces
- Buses are expensive to rent. A u-haul is like $20 for the day.
- But what about all the Good Guys that show up in U-Hauls?
  
  Hey the only thing that can stop bad guys with U-Hauls are good guys with U-Hauls
- It's easier to avoid detection until it's too late if no one can see you.
- probably cheaper
The only good nazi is a dead nazi.
- In the corpses of fascists, the most beautiful flowers grow.
  
  Time to give them a pocket of sunflower seeds.
  
  I always assumed it would be like Lord of the Rings. When evil creatures die, they get burned, and nothing ever grows there again, the landscape permanently defiled.
- I was ban of reddit fur saying that x3
  
  Lemmy is actually leftist unlike Reddit.
  Telling Nazis they should follow Hitler’s lead and kill themselves is just a Tuesday here.
Just want to say, if I'm on your jury after you have t-boned or firebombed a truck full of nazis, you will never see prison.
It is just self-defense at this point.
- Yeah, just make sure you don't make that known during jury selection or you won't get to help.
  
  Yeah, I know.
  
  Don't be too gung ho either though, if you're going that route you have to be able to defend the idea that you argued based on the evidence of the case, because otherwise they'll try to charge you with perjury for lying during jury questioning, they'll do this because they designed the questions specifically to adversarially try to weed out anyone who'll blatantly ignore the law and evidence in favor of how they think the case should be decided.
  Don't be too mad at them though, if everyone started doing that, they'd basically have no job.
- Killing nazis is both a moral and ethical good.
- Fuck yes.
Everyone, may I present the proud white race.
Among the seriousness of the situation, I just want to say that I find hilarious that after these things happen, nazis online always go "well those aren't real nazis because look how fit they are, they are all in good shape, and are marching! they must be feds because of all the walking and going outside! we real nazis could never!"
- Bunch of cowardly, destitute morons- all of them
the fact they're not in jail atm is a failure of the system
- All the cops were busy at a march themselves.
- The system is working as intended, it was always since its inception a tool of oppression and control.
  The fact that they are not in jail atm is an indicator of solidarity between fascists and police.
- Man you know.... Thats the thing... I support their right to march and voice their opinion. Is it a shit opinion? Yes. Does middle Tennessee have a Nazi problem? Yes.
  But I don't want the government to stop them from marching. Because if they can't march... Then the groups I support and agree with can't either.
  It sucks. But it's how it should be. :/
  
  the American government and many more literally went to war with the nazis once, it's okay. It's okay to say "the Nazis must not have a voice", and giving the nazis a voice, and a platform, is not how it should be.
  if you don't stop it now, it will get worse.
  
  How else you supposed to know who needs a punching?
  
  Everyone deserves a voice unless their message is one of hatred and in support of violent oppression. That is the line, and nazis are on the wrong side of the line.
  
  Many people have said the same, and many people have died. Please take the words of this comment section into your mind and give it a second thought. Nazis can't share the same privilege to "speak freely" when they only conduct hate speech to rally others to harm people. That's regulated in a million ways; basically obscenity laws only exist because we don't want Nazis to.
  
  On the other hand, if you see someone punch a nazi, no you didn't. That nazi fell.
  
  We can just, as a society, say fuck nazis, and not tolerate them.
  
  If you value freedom of expression, that doesn't mean you need to extend that to people who fundamentally oppose it. To maximize freedom of expression, you can't tolerate the people who would outright destroy it.
  It's also a slippery slope argument. We can just crack down on Nazis. And as for the government cracking down on other groups... they already do that. We see crackdowns on plenty of other demonstrations, with more repression and violence. Tolerating Nazis isn't helping the good guys, because people in power don't care about applying the rules evenly. Besides, even if we took the slippery slope seriously, then we have to consider what happens when we just let literal Nazis go about their business.
  
  No.
  Fuck nazis
  This isn't a 'matter of opinion'.
  There is NO middle ground between genocide and peace. And their ideals ALWAYS lead to that.
  The only good nazi is a dead nazi, the fact our country gives them freedom to speak proves how far we have slipped down the fascist ramp.
- So you're against freedom of speech?
  
  Nazis are a blight on society, any time you give them a finger they take the whole arm, tattoo it full of swastikas and feed it to their ravenous dogs.
  You don't need to be tolerant to the intolerant. They are the ones who broke the social contract by ascribing themselves to an ideology that is literally about genociding any group that doesn't conform to their view.
  The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. No exceptions.
  
  Actually yes.
  Because absolute Freedom of Speech is absolutely stupid.
  No country should allow you cry fire at a crowded event without consequences because of free speech.
  No country should allow you to lie in court without consequences because of free speech.
  No country should allow you to make death threats without consequences because of free speech.
  No country should allow you to tell lies in verbal or written contract because of free speech
  Because there are certain rules our society is build upon.
  Freedom of Speech is a right granted to you by the democratic society and framework of laws. Those intentionally leaving the implicit agreements of democratic society or established law behind (and literal nazis qualify) should lose protection of the same.
  
  I'm against nazis
  
  Not for folks who openly advocate against it themselves.
  The rights of a democracy ought not be permitted to protect acts fully intended at undermining the democratic rights of the people.
  
  Encouraging an explicitly genocidal political movement is not protected free speech, similar to how a person can be charged with a crime for threatening someones life.
  
  Nazis are literally trying to take the free speech away from others
  
  nazis don't deserve any freedoms at all.
  There is no middle ground between genocide and peace.
Glad they were challenged.
- And chased out of the county.
And were followed to wherever they parked their mom's cars, and were shot, thrown in a pile, and burned, as is customary with Nazis and Fascists right?
- If Inglorious Basterds taught us anything, it's a big club. Burning works if you have a French cinema, though.
- Sounds like self-defense to me.
- Nobody said these were good Nazis.
- ah yes, glorification of violence.
  But to answer your question: no, that would release too much fine dust into the atmosphere and damage the environment and therefore is illegal
  
  I'm pretty alright with killing self-identified nazis.
  
  Oh, so no burning then, compost it is. Good thinking, more sustainable!
- They went back to the library where they work as janitors.
  
  What's wrong with being a janitor?
  
  Apart from the other issue of you insulting janitors, you're also insulting libraries.
  
  Here's your downvote
Now the right wingers are trying to say that the two Democrats who were previously expelled from the state house are the ones who invited Polhaus and his Nazi clown car, which is absolute bullshit, but it just shows that right Wingers continue to refuse to take responsibility for their rhetoric and actions.
- That is a very russian tactic, we all know what playbook the cuntservatives are using these days.
Are we 100% sure it's illegal to beat them on sight?
- who cares about legality, lets talk about morality, it is 100% moral to punch a nazi and beat the tar out of them, it is also your duty to violate immoral laws, therefor its your duty to beat the tar out of nazis. no self respecting jury will convict...
I live in middle Tennessee and I assure you the only reason they were there is because they didn't friggin tell us they were. And I'm ridiculously disappointed I missed the opportunity to meet them.
This is really starting to feel like "Man in the high castle". Fuck Nazi's
Smart money says they came from Illinois
- I hate Illinois nazis.
  
  I hate the illinois nazi meme being trotted out in every fuckdamn thread.
  Yes, we get it, you watched Blues Brothers, now find a meme that isn't older than the internet.
  Full disclosure so you don't misunderstand: to hell with nazis, the only good fascist is a corpse.
- https://www.wate.com/news/tennessee/2-extremist-groups-behind-nashville-nazi-march-adl-says/
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Tribe_(neo-Nazi_group)
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goyim_Defense_League
  Jokes aside, they're all over the place.
  Maybe not being from Nashville doesn't mean they aren't from Tennessee, and given Tennessee birthed the KKK I don't particularly have trouble believing some of these losers were from places like Pulaski, which to this day is the only town I've been to with three different streets named after Nathan Bedford Forrest.
  Best case scenario, they're a small group of fascists that travel a lot for their demonstrations, but pretending you can't possibly find twenty of these guys, or people like these guys, in any state is a good way to let the cancer grow unchecked.
UHaul truck?
Should have pulled it over and cited everyone in it for seatbelt violations, at least get a list of their names.
- Theyve been riding around in uhauls for a few years now. They did arrest an uhaul full of patriot front members in Idaho a couple years back. But they all got charged with conspiracy to riot not lack of safety violations.
  Guess the police have gotten so used to truck fulls of these idiots making appearances, they escort them out and just let em go...
  
  Some of those who work forces....
A Trump rally in Nashville?
- Not every Republican is a Nazi. But, every Nazi is Republican.
Probably these morons.
https://wpln.org/post/im-an-actual-literal-nazi-lewis-country-store-owner-responds-to-southern-poverty-law-center-report-finding-the-business-hosted-hate-groups/
They kind of look like patriot front rebranded.
- Temu nazis.
- Yes, both groups have the same glow to them.
Where's Indiana Jones when you need him? Didn't he take out a truck full of Nazis?
Wayne and Tanis from Letterkenny need to have a donnybrook with the hard right.
They have to pile into a u-haul cause a u-haul blocks them from glowing allover the place.

193 comments