“I feel like it’s more secure now,” one woman said. “I know my son can walk home and be OK.”

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.

  • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
    601·
    4 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
      152·
      3 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
        81·
        3 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.