White supremacist gathering in Georgia

TIME

Excerpt:

Neo-Nazis held a swastika burning following a white supremacist rally in the city of Newnan, Georgia, on Saturday.

Photographer Spencer Platt captured the scene for Getty Images. His pictures show a massing burning swastika and an othala rune – a pagan symbol that was used by some elements of the Third Reich.

One image shows dozens of people giving Nazi salutes in front of a burning swastika that appears to be 12 to 18 feet tall.

According to Platt and local news reports, the white supremacist group gathered in Draketown, Georgia, about 50 miles from Newnan after the protest.

The rally at Greenville Street Park in Newnan was organized by the white supremacist National Socialist Movement. The New York Times reported that it was made up of roughly two-dozen people, making it much smaller than the deadly “Unite the Right”white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last August. One woman died after a car ran through a crowd of counter-protesters at that rally.

The neo-Nazi rally on Saturday was met with about 100 counter-protesters, according to the Times, including members from the anti-fascist group antifa, and a large police presence of roughly 700 law enforcement officers. About 10 counter-protestors were arrested, according to reports. Local authorities said some were charged for refusing to removed their masks – in violation of a 1950 state law initially aimed at stopping the Ku Klux Klan.

Every state legislator as well as numerous county and city officials in Coweta County condemned the rally before it took place.

A sad time we live in.

This isn't new......?

@nintendoboy16: it’s a thing that they do, where have you been?

Yeah, there is Klan meetings about 5 hours south of me. Been happening since I was a kid.

What do you mean "it's a sad time"?

Dumb people are not a new thing, so not sure why you think this time it's specifically bad.

The only thing that is sad, is the media giving them the time of day instead of just ignoring it.

@n64dd: Yeah, the Republican Party meets everywhere around the country. Good point!

Glad you're still putting your input in on things you have no knowledge on.

24 people?

i'm sure there are bigger collections of racists at people's backyard barbecues.

i wouldn't get too worked up over it.

@n64dd: If knowledge on a topic was a prerequisite of posting you’d have 0 posts on this forum.

What I really do not like is the armed cops pointing guns at people.

Honestly, that bugs me more than any neo-nazi or militant anti-fascist.

Also, saw a picture of this cop in military gear in a military armored truck and it said "State Police" but for a second I thought it read "Police State" lol. Not really that far of a stretch...

I'm not the one calling the whole republican party klan members brah.

@nintendoboy16: I live in Atlanta GA and this isn't new to anyone within GA residents. Another Civil War is just waiting to happen and it's not a matter of how, it's when?

But in any case, I doubt anyone is dumb enough to go start a War and the White Supremacist knows it's futile at this day in age.

"The only requirement for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." The sad thing is not that there are walking piles of shit displaying burning swastikas at rallies in this day and age, the sad thing is that you all accept it as business as usual.

@n64dd: They associate with them and in recent times have welcomed them into the fold. It’s the truth, I’m sorry to tell you this. :(

Georgia....not surprised.

I find that upsetting as well, but we are also all guilty of it.

Besides, they are protected by law; they are allowed to demonstrate, rally, and so forth.

I think people should be upset, obviously, instead of apathetic, but at the same time getting all worked up about it is not good for one's mental health.

Association with those hateful morons (KKK) is not exclusive to any one political party. Come on.

It sucks, but it's only 2 dozen racists protesting in Atlanta. They are promoting evil, but they aren't actually performing evil acts. "Doing nothing" is the proper response here. Any sort of response only serves as an acknowledgement of them and helps to legitimize them.

@PurpleMan5000: @mrbojangles25: I don't agree with any legal interpretation that protects that sort of speech. Harassment and intimidation are not and should not be protected. And I'm perfectly fine getting worked up over this. I'd rather get worked up over something I find morally abhorrent then become apathetic to it.

Hitler started as a nobody with a couple of dozen fanatics following him. Even if I were to discount the possibility that this sort of thing could turn very ugly very fast, I've seen first hand the kind of effect this sort of thing has on people on the receiving end. I don't care if it doesn't stop them or legitimizes them to speak out against them, if it helps some black or gay or jewish kid feel just a little better about seeing that kind of shit then it's worth it.

And just so you know, I didn't have either of you in mind when I wrote my first post.

It would be nice if somebody would take photos of all of these people and create an online database that potential employers who aren't interested in hiring nazis could check.

@n64dd: Haha, how predictable. Of course you would say such stuff instead of acknowledging the facts. Who did the KKK and neo-nazis endorse in the 2016 election?

A couple dozen shirtless rednecks in small town Georgia. Truly the Fourth Reich has begun.

You sound like Fox News in 2008.

lol pretty much. Let them be with their silly beliefs as long as they aren't hurting/killing anyone, or calling for it. Meanwhile, people are being killed everyday, like the 9 in Toronto or the 4 that were killed in a Nashville Waffle House. A sad time we live in indeed.

Most folks stop dressing up as wizards when they get older, not all but most.

That's bait.

@theone86: I know, I am one of those "I'm playing Devil's Advocate" asshole types :P I just can't help but argue for the other side sometimes.

Kind of funny that they burn the swastika. Isnt that their symbol. but then, brains and neo-nazis are not words commonly found in the same sentence.

Pretty much.

Antifa already does that. They work to expose fascists, track their activity, and let those who may or have hired them know of their beliefs. Or so I've heard....

If that was as far as they would go, I could actually respect them. But putting masks on (because they know what they're doing is wrong) and going for violence, and planning for it, is no way to go.

I say sad because this feels like it's more relevant in a Brexit/Trump/Charlottesville era. I don't care how "normal" it is in certain states (it shouldn't be after World War II, considering this is what the Allies fought against). ISIS, for instance, is trying to push the atrocities they do as "normal"

I rather have a public database on gun owners/advocates instead

white supremacists congregate in the south... damn, that's not news, it would be news if it didn't happen

Looks like a niche group that will never go away.

My state.... I am from Savannah but I live in Athens. Thank ALMIGHTY GOD I am moving to Denver Colorado this year

Displaying swastikas is the same thing. They are the symbol of a party that called for the extermination of an entire ethnicity, displaying that symbol is endorsing their message and hence calling for people to be killed.

Antifa does not instigate violence, they expect violence. They expect violence because the people they're going up against go on message boards and talk about murdering non-white people. They expect violence because the people they're going up against want violence. The Charlottesville Nazis went on message boards and actively coordinated activity explicitly meant to incite violence because they wanted an excuse to kill counter-protesters. That is the kind of thing Antifa is going up against.

It's more common than you'd think, though maybe a bit less common than it seems lately with the increased coverage. I remember going to the Holocaust museum when it opened and seeing neo-Nazis out protesting. There were maybe a dozen of them, but it seemed ridiculous that they were there at all considering the year and the area of the country. I think what we're learning lately is that there are a lot more of them than we thought, there are a lot of people who aren't part of an organization but share their views, and they are becoming more and more comfortable voicing their views. That last part is especially concerning to me. When people feel comfortable talking about restoring the white race and no one has the stones to argue with them things are definitely not OK. One other thing I learned, they are very good at getting people who have negative views of white supremacy to make excuses for them. I read a profile of a white supremacist a while back and he had a fiancée who was very liberal and not at all a white supremacist. Whenever she was quoted she'd say things like "oh, he's really a sweet guy, he doesn't mean the things he says, you have to get to know him." They are absolutely insidious.

They're not just in the south. I live around a very stereotypical northern city and I see plenty of people who echo their sentiments and probably belong to a group in secret. There's a district around here that's probably going to send a neo-Nazi to Congress, and it does not surprise me in the least. It's just the kind of neighborhood where you'd expect a bunch of secret neo-Nazis to live.

Displaying a hate symbol is definitely in extreme poor taste. Does it mean to kill all Jews? It certainly could, judging by history. Is it by definition though? Is it in a specific law? I don't know, I'm assuming that you're American and you have a reference for that. I thought that U.S law forbid death threats. So if what they're doing is illegal, then the authorities will deal with it.

Antifa has shown to instigate violence. I'm not sure why you, or anyone here, would defend such a childish group. If people are writing death threats on messaging boards then the authorities should be notified. These kids are essentially taking the law into their own hands when they form these groups and plan to fight and assault people. They certainly don't limit their violence to those deadbeats in Charlottesville. They've assaulted people for simply disagreeing with them. To them, anyone can be a Nazi if they don't share the same views. If what they're doing is so noble and righteous, then why do they wear masks? Hint: it's same reason as those losers in the KKK. They're cowards and they don't want their identities known. You don't need to be in Antifa, or support them, to dislike Nazis and other scumbags. Majority of people already do. It's such a selfish attitude that those children take. Anyway are they even a thing now? I haven't heard anything in the news about them for about a year.

Who started the KKK? It wasn't the Republicans.

If you want to make the argument that the Democratic and Republican Parties of 2018 are the same parties from 1865, feel free. I could use a good laugh.

Why do people forget about the Southern Strategy?

The funny thing is they are still the same. I would like some to tell me when the Republicans became the racists, when every thing in their history and actions do not indicate the concept.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10Section2b.t-4.html Is this the Southern Strategy you are talking about.

@libtard: Well that alt will last long rofl.

I think there's a reasonable argument that it should be illegal, but it's not the prevailing legal sentiment. Still, I'm not simply concerned with what the law says. There are other ways to shut Nazis up than by going through the courts. See:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-neo-nazi-skokie-march-flashback-perspec-0312-20170310-story.html

In this case, the Nazi won all his court battles and got everything he wanted, and his marches still got shut down because people turned out at every step along the way and opposed him. If the law isn't going to do the right thing then people can do the right thing.

This is exactly what Antifa does. They show up at Nazi rallies and ensure that they don't march unopposed. And they do so without the intent to instigate violence, but expecting that violence is going to be taken against them. And that is a legitimate expectation when said Nazis are openly planning to instigate violence so that they have an excuse to kill them.

And yes, the Charlottesville crowd was planning violence. It was reported to the authorities, they did nothing. The march went directly by a Charlottesville temple and activists petitioned the local government for weeks to redirect it or add police officers near it, they did nothing. Antifa showed up and protected the temple. The law in this country protects white supremacy. Maybe if that changes people will stop seeing Antifa so favorably, which is fine because in that case we won't need them.

Anifita is a hate group.

Who do they hate?

Anybody that doesn't think like them. Anybody on the the right, capitalism, etc.