Day: August 14, 2017đź’ľ

🖼️ Photos 📽️ Videos

The Misguided Attacks on ACLU for Defending Neo-Nazis’ Free Speech Rights in Charlottesville

|

The Misguided Attacks on ACLU for Defending Neo-Nazis’ Free Speech Rights in Charlottesville

"Last week, the ACLU sparked controversy when it announced that it was defending the free speech rights of “alt-right” activist Milo Yiannopoulos after the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority refused to allow ads for his book to be displayed on public transit. Lost in the debate was that other groups the ACLU was defending along with Yiannopoulos were also censored under the same rule: Carafem, which helps women access birth control and medical abortion; the animal rights group PETA; and the ACLU itself."

"For representing Yiannopoulos, the civil liberties group was widely accused of defending and enabling fascism. But the ACLU wasn’t “defending Yiannopoulos” as much as it was opposing a rule that allows state censorship of any controversial political messages the state wishes to suppress: a rule that is often applied to groups which are supported by many who attacked the ACLU here."

"The same formula was applied yesterday when people learned that the ACLU of Virginia had represented the white supremacist protesters in Charlottesville after city officials tried to ban the group from gathering in Emancipation Park where a statue of Robert E. Lee was to be removed (city officials tried to move the march to an isolated location one mile away)."

"One board member of the ACLU of Virginia, Waldo Jaquith, waited until the violence erupted to announce on Twitter that he was resigning in protest of the ACLU’s representation of the protesters — as though he was unaware when he joined the board that the ACLU has been representing the free speech rights of neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groups (along with communists, Muslims, war protesters, and the full spectrum of marginalized minorities and leftists) for many decades."
Map: Mountain House Trail and North Mountain

Fifty years after the Plymouth Mail Robbery

|

Fifty years after the Plymouth Mail Robbery

"Historians don’t have all the answers about the Plymouth Mail Robbery that took place Tuesday, Aug. 14, 1962, a robbery that permanently relieved several Cape Cod banks of $1.5 million in cash. Fifty years ago, it made the news as the biggest cash heist ever – even more than the infamous Brinks Robbery of 1950."

"Six men are believed to have been involved in the Plymouth Mail Robbery, as well as several cars and machine guns. Masquerading as highway workers, the criminals waited near Exit 3, Clark Road, on Route 3 to see the mail truck appear on the horizon, bound for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. They waited for a signal from two other thieves, scoping out the highway from the Clark Road overpass. When signaled, the bogus highway workers let the truck pass, then flew into action, erecting a barricade of pilfered sawhorses across Route 3, forcing traffic off the highway at Exit 3 onto Clark Road. Meanwhile, up ahead, on a stretch of roadway completely obscured from south-bound traffic by a screen of trees, two cars blocked the highway and a cohort dressed as a police officer waved the mail truck over. When the truck came to a halt, the “officer” and other accomplices raced to the vehicle, machine guns in hand, disarmed the postal workers and forced them to open the truck."