Summary

Following a February 7th neo-Nazi rally, residents of Lincoln Heights, a majority-Black Ohio town, formed an armed Safety and Watch Program to protect against hate groups.

The rally, where participants waved swastikas and shouted slurs, received little police intervention, sparking fears of future threats when no arrests or identifications were made during the incident.

Volunteers now patrol bus stops and neighborhoods. “I’ve never felt safer as a Black man in my community,” said spokesperson Daronce Daniels.

The historically underserved and self-governing community shows strong support for the initiative with yard signs and sees this as a continuation of its legacy of self-reliance and community defense.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    4 minutes ago

    Getting organized is good.

    Individuals just yolo shooting Nazis and CEOs is kind of heart warming, but real power I think comes from organizing.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    6 hours ago

    The rally, where participants waved swastikas

    Why isn’t this enough to shot them in the face?

    Millions died at war to stop swastika-waving scum, and the world united to never allow this to happen again, so why is American society suddenly ok with letting them terrorize communities?

    • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Almost all of the WW2 vets are gone man. I worry that the far right resurgence around the world is being allowed to happen because people are simply ignorant to the horror of WW2. I remember talking to someone younger than me about Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. He didn’t seem to think much of the Holocaust which I found disturbing. I started bringing up the numbers and I could see the shock in his face. He genuinely didn’t seem to grasp just how many people were murdered because of fascism.

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        2 hours ago

        I think everyone should attend an event where they can personally thank a WW2 vet.

        And we can apologise to them at the same time for not honouring their sacrifice by allowing tyranny to rise up nearly uninhibited.

        I regularly watch documentaries about out WW2 as a reminder of how easily dictators can threaten civilization, but also to learn about what it took for ordinary people to become heroes.

        • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          History classes in the US are patriot washed to convince soon to be laborers that they’re living in the greatest country to ever possibly exist.

          • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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            14 minutes ago

            “People’s History of the United States” and “Lies My Teacher Told Me” were eye opening to the omissions from my primary education. “Trail of Tears” should be required reading.

      • HeyListenWatchOut@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Look at major wars and start going backwards in history… and then do the math of how long before that major war a previous major war was.

        WW2… 80-ish years ago from today Civil War… 1860s - about 80 or so years before that American Revolution - 1770s - about 80 to 90 years before that

        There seems to be a rough pattern indicating that once the generation scarred by a major war is gone… so seems to go the world order that was in place beforehand.

        • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          I get it in the past because the information was simply not accessible for most people. Nowadays there is no excuse for ignorance. It takes a 5 minute google search to get a taste of the inhumanity of history. Everyone should be willing to put in at least 5 minutes man.

  • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
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    7 hours ago

    Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey is now calling on the Ohio state Legislature to pass laws that make it illegal to wear a mask “for the purpose of intimidation” while open carrying. She said this measure would have given her officers more leeway to make arrests during the neo-Nazi rally.

    There it is.

    You know who’s wearing masks while open carrying?

    The Safety and Watch Program.

    You know what group was formed in order to intimidate Nazis?

    The Safety and Watch Program.

    Y’all expect law enforcement to pass a law banning the community watch? This is the law they’re passing. It’s right there in the article. And then the neo-Nazis will walk right back into Lincoln Heights, under police escort, and the cops will arrest any community watch member who “intimidates” them.

    • booly@sh.itjust.works
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      6 hours ago

      She said this measure would have given her officers more leeway to make arrests during the neo-Nazi rally.

      Isn’t this just an acknowledgement that the mask wearers weren’t breaking any law, but the Sheriff just really wanted to arrest them for some reason?

      • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
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        5 hours ago

        I don’t think so. As the article discusses, law enforcement at the scene chose “de-escalation” - that is, they chose to let the Nazis protest, and chose to provide a police escort to prevent violence, instead of threatening to arrest the Nazis and provoke a confrontation with a group larger and better armed than law enforcement.

        I’m not going to say that was necessarily the wrong choice, as bad as it looks to the community.

        Generally we don’t want cops shooting people at rallies, even if the people rallying are Nazis.

        But Nazis stopping traffic and calling black men the n-word isn’t legal. The sheriff claimed the Nazis weren’t breaking any laws. But that’s an obvious excuse. Threatening people is not legal. The sheriff didn’t act because she didn’t want to start a gunfight her people couldn’t win - and/or because her sympathies were with the Nazis.

        This proposed law wouldn’t have changed the situation there.

        What it will do is make the community watch illegal.

  • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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    10 hours ago

    Wanna bet this community sees a temporary decrease in crime?

    Hell, I personally would feel safer as an opponent of facism there too.

    History shows us that this will not be tolerated for long though, regardless of the constitutional right. I hope this idea is picked up elsewhere. There are a lot of places that could benefit from running their own regulated militia: cities, towns, and neighborhoods.

    • Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
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      10 hours ago

      You wanna bet they’re gonna make some laws now to restrict them because black people are exercising their 2nd amendment rights.

      • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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        9 hours ago

        That’s the part I’m curious about. California did enact a law in 1967 requiring permits to openly carry loaded firearms, but the Black Panthers didn’t just go away.

        Anything enacted at a federal level will get pushback, and I’m very curious about how it will be constructed to avoid pissing off their support. In either way, I would presume that people aren’t just going to passively hand over their guns. We know how that ends up.

        • Jikiya@lemmynsfw.com
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          7 hours ago

          Black father’s are why Reagan, and the NRA passed gun control in the past. Fox will be fully utilized to push an agenda of dis-arming pigmented people. And when enough of the community has forgotten the experiment, they will go back to pushing ‘gun rights’.

  • boaratio@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    The cops didn’t didn’t show up for the same reason that you never see Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus at the same time.

  • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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    12 hours ago

    If the cops didn’t do shit when the Nazis came, why do they think the cops won’t fuck them over if they try to stop the Nazis?

    • CompostMaterial@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Cowards tend to back down when confronted on equal grounds. This is essentially a resurgence of the Black Panther movement, which worked quite well doing the exact same thing.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        This is essentially a resurgence of the Black Panther movement, which worked quite well doing the exact same thing.

        Well, up until it got COINTELPRO’d and the cops assassinated Fred Hampton, at least.

      • Notserious@lemmy.ca
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        11 hours ago

        I wonder if this will trigger republicans to enact gun laws

        Mulford Act A 1967 California bill to repeal the law that permitted citizens to carry loaded weapons in public places The Mulford Act was a 1967 California bill that prohibited public carrying of loaded firearms without a permit. Named after Republican assemblyman Don Mulford, and signed into law by governor of California Ronald Reagan, the bill was crafted with the goal of disarming members of the Black Panther Party who were conducting armed patrols of Oakland neighborhoods, in what would later be termed copwatching. Wikipedia

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Fun fact: Reagan kicked off his 1980 campaign with a speech in Philadelphia MS - a middle-of-nowhere city known for absolutely fucking nothing except the murder of three civil rights workers in 1964.

          • baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            Or at least a bigger caliber. Why do all these would be assassin’s not spend and extra 200 dollars in range time. Meanwhile kennedy gets the fucking marine that bullseye’s womp bats with a garand.

        • chingadera@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          Lmfao imagine showing up to be the voice of the people and banning something termed “cop watching” and not hanging yourself right after.

        • BigFig@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          An interesting distinction, so you could carry an unloaded rifle, and a magazine or ammunition in your pocket and be totally legal and still ready to defend yourself if needed

    • waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      The cops did plenty! They openly fraternized with them and then escorted the Nazis away where they openly fraternized with them again. Wait a minute…

      • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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        12 hours ago

        He said he supports law enforcement, but that its handling of the Feb. 7 demonstration doesn’t give him faith that it will protect him in the future. For that reason, he says he’s proud of the neighborhood safety and watch program, even though he wishes it weren’t needed.

        Well for starters opposing the police instead of supporting them.

        • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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          12 hours ago

          You gotta virtue signal sometimes. Purity testing every word people say will get the movement nowhere.