Police in Somerville, Massachusetts, closed a public library early on Saturday to prevent a white supremacist group from entering the building, according to this story from boston.com news.
According to the story, the closure was for the security of the patrons.
This is related to the 60th anniversary of liberation of the Nazi concentration camps
Police: 1, Supremecists: 0
I’m gonna hafta agree with the actions undertaken by the Sommerville police. Admittedly, under just about any other circumstances I would be against the police closing down a public library. However, thanks to the supremecist group lying about who was reserving the meeting room and the unfortunate history of general disruption and violence from such groups, allowing the group to use the library for organizational purposes would have likely posed problems with the public library’s reputation in the community for providing a non-disruptive and safe place for enlightenment amidst books, magazines, and public computers.
How much notice is needed?
How much notice is needed to let idiots meet in your meeting rooms. Just because someone’s ideas are whacko does not mean you can deny them use of the meeting room. Yes, we are even free to be stupid asses in this country.
Safety of the patrons my eye. They just didn’t want the nazis there. This plays into their hands by making them a persecuted group.
I say serve them punch and cookies and put up signs that say White Supremacist group meeting here, feel free to join them. People without prejudice group meeting next weekend if you would prefer that.
They are like screaming children who don’t get their way. If you ignore them long enough they will go away. (Unless you give these people tenure like Dr. Christensen who thinks the Holocaust never happened and 9/11/01 was staged.)
There will always be unpopular groups at the library. Heck the separation of church and state people seem nutty to me (When I unlock the room for them I say the Pledge of Allegiance and then a Hail Mary :> )but we can’t let our opinion of their speech get in the way of their freedom to exercise their right to speak. Prior restraint and all that…
What’s in a name?
I dunno if the name thing is an issue. The current administration calls themselves Republican, even though they’re really Neo-con. The Republicans I know are very disgusted with the lack of fiscal conservatism, the intrusion of government into personal affairs, etc, etc, etc. Maybe ths police should prevent them from meeting, since they’re using a name not their own…
— Ender, Duke_of_URL