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Out from under their rock: Nazis fly their flag outside the State House

Nazis in front of the Massachusetts State House

Air thick with Nazi symbols on Beacon Street today. Photo by Hilary Sargent.

White supremacists who organized a "Back the Blue" rally in front of the State House today found themselves joined by swastika-tattooed Nazis who rejected a requests from the white supremacists to leave and instead joined in the rally.

All were protected by a phalanx of baton-wielding Boston cops from a far larger group of anti-Nazi protesters across the street, along the Common.

After they secured their position at the head of the police barricades, the Nazis unfurled their Sonnenrad flag, a less obvious Nazi symbol than the swastika that was derived from it, except, of course, to fellow Nazis.

In the photo above, one of the flag holders is also wearing a Liftwaffe T-shirt (get it? It's lifting weights) and an SS grinning-totenkopf mask. To his right is another Nazi doubling down by wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a battle flag of the traitorous Confederacy emblazoned with a grinning-death's-head of his own. There's a better shot of the Confederate-skull guy, also showing him with the leader of NSC-131, which in Nazi lingo and numbering somehow stands for Nationalist Social Club - Anti-Communist Action.

The protest was at least more peaceful than an earlier time when Nazis showed up near the State House. In 1933, the Ford Hall Forum invited a professor from the University of Berlin to address Bostonians on "Why I Believe in the Hitler Government." Hundreds of Bostonians showed up to protest, a riot broke out and six people were arrested on Derne Street, as protesters battled police there and on other streets surrounding the State House as well as on the Common.

Inside the building where he gave his speech, even as rioting was going on outside, meanwhile, the professor faced jeers and chants of "Liar!" as, according to the Boston Globe, he denied that Hitler wanted war or that the Nazis had taken Einstein's property away from him.

The director of the Ford Hall Forum, George Coleman, later praised the professor for his "courage and patience" in giving the speech. Coleman added he had to hang his own head in shame at the disrespect. The Globe noted that when a woman in the balcony yelled "Down with Hitler!" a police officer working the crowd hushed her.

The professor was accompanied to the speech by Kurt von Tippleskirsch, the Nazis' consul in Boston.

From the Ford Hall forum program for 1933-34, from the Moakley Archive and Institute:

Announcing German professor's pro-Hitler talk
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Comments

Whoa, that totally justifies the amount of cops I saw on the news. Hundreds of cops needed for 6 mentally ill assholes? Or were there more nazis?

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The Nazis were part of the pro-cop rally

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Chris Hood and friends promote white nationalism at Super Happy fun America

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Why they all seem uncomfortable with themselves?

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Thank you for the history lesson.

Nazism and those who ascribe to it have no place in our society. No matter where you stand on a particular issue, if Nazis show up to join you at your demonstration, you absolutely do not have to accept their alliance and allow them to stand with you. Doing so tells us everything we need to know about you.

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But I didn't want to bring the story too far down a rabbit hole.

The next year, a German warship docked in Boston and some of the sailors were supposed to play a friendly soccer match with a local team in the South End. The night before, people surrounded the field with signs reading "Down with Hitler!" and other things that the Globe found too "scurrilous" to repeat. But they were foiled because somebody else went around painting all the signs white before the match.

The year after that, the state House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution condemning religious persecution in Germany. Gov. Curley signed it. The German consulate responded that the legislature should "mind its own business."

And then there was Hitler's press secretary, Harvard class of 1909, who got quite the warm welcome on his return to Cambridge, including tea with Harvard's president (he also took in a Sox game).

That's just from a search of the Globe archives related to Nazis and the State House; I'm sure there's even more.

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Not the last time a Nazi warship has docked in Boston, either!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brianjdamico/7536384054/in/album-721576304...

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Not everyone is going to get that.

I think you are not calling the USCGS a Nazi organization.

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and I recall one or two reminders of the ship's origin being visible if you looked carefully while touring it.

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Understandable, though I'd hope if one's mind were to stray to that conclusion, they would pause for a moment and find something rather interesting they hadn't known before.

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if Nazis show up to join you at your demonstration, you absolutely do not have to accept their alliance and allow them to stand with you

Accept their alliance, no. Allow them to stand with you, yes, probably.

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If a group of Nazis shows up to join you, and they won't leave, there is another option rather than letting them stand with you. You can walk away from them, rather then let them poison your message with their association.

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you have 10 Nazis standing together.

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Wait, supporting police = white supremacy? That’s crazy, man. Appreciate all you do here to share local news. Your snappy style usually makes me laugh!

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Being part of Super Happy Fun America, the group that organized the event, however, does. Actual Nazis showing up? That's just icing on the rancid cake.

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Thanks for the clarification, A. See what I mean? Local site, local perspective. You do good work here.

I don’t keep up on the finer points of racial power movement affiliations. Maybe I should. Who knows. Sounds like Boston and Mass have some growing to do.

It seems like a sad commentary on a town when the SHFA(sp?) is who speaks up to support the blue. Maybe someone else could have taken the lead.

Any how, the blue have protected my life before, and I’m still grateful. Thanks.

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That was a precise, graceful dodge and you should be commended.

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I wouldn’t call this taking the lead. There were 6 of them. I have a feeling these clowns would have supported whatever controversial cause to get themselves more attention. Clearly these are awful, evil people but they don’t indicate a Boston resurgence of the 3rd reich.
It’s definitely in fashion to call cops Nazis right now. In this echo chamber it will gain a bunch of likes and comments. Maybe that was their intention.

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So. Did the cops tell them to get lost? Did they make a statement saying that they weren't affiliated with the demonstration?

No?

Go back to reading Pax Centurion, then.

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It’s definitely in fashion to call cops Nazis right now.

Where? Here? Who here called cops Nazis? The answer is, nobody did. Are you trying to start a fashion trend?

Probably some cops are Nazis, but unless they show themselves as Nazis, I doubt that anyone here is going to call them that.

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When do any public safety agencies give a statement of approval or disapproval prior to their actions? Not what their supposed to do.
Were the EMT’s, MBTA workers, firefighters etc also condoning the Nazis by being on duty during the protests? Don’t remember any statements from the Carmen’s Union or Florian Hall. But keep saying silly things if it helps support your narrative.

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But keep saying silly things if it helps support your narrative.

I understand talking to yourself is a sign of mental instability.

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No, being a white supremacist makes you a white supremacist.

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a wild coincidence that all the white nationalists who show up to protests just happen to be pro-cop.

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that a whole bunch of cops ~happen~ to be white supremacists.

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Trump rallies focused on “backing the blue” - because “White power march” is just a tad unsubtle.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforc...

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What part of "back the blue" = "white supremacist"?

...or was this a already-known white supremacist group (article doesn't say) that got the permit?

Anyway...

https://images.app.goo.gl/y84QjJaBjH6UjBvW9

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It was organized by the "straight pride" people, Super Happy Fun America, who are not good people.

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Doctor Email, doctor?

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You called? Come visit my bus near fresh pond. Get a whopper and gaze upon my gaudy bus displaying my MIT Ph.D. credentials. I mentioned it my Ph.D. was from MIT right?

MIT.

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It was organized by the "straight pride" people, Super Happy Fun America, who are not good people.

Thank you, Brian. That information was not in the article or the link.

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It was organized by Super Happy Fun America, the grinning right-wing trolls who brought us Straight Pride and the "free speech" rally. While they themselves may or may not be white supremacists, white supremacists and Proud Boys are absolutely the first (and often, only) ones to show up at their events.

Here's their post about the Nazis, whom they called "alt-right" which is fine because they're basically synonyms: https://twitter.com/SuperHappyFunA/status/1276984491236634626

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If Nazis are joining your cause, you're on the wrong side.

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If they told the police, "These Nazis aren't with us.", do the police escort them away?

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"hey these guys aren't with us, and are disrupting the demonstration we've got a permit for. can you move them out?"

Pretty sure it would be the same as if a counter-protester crossed the lines.

Then again, the whole "they aren't with us" thing might not be a given with this particular group.

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Because, hey, man, it’s 1A protected sacred ground, which the cops keep sanctified by dispatching hundreds of officers to protect every right-wing nutbag sack of crap who ever pulls a permit to protest. Also because the overlap between white guys who feel confident showing up in Boston carrying Nazi flags, and people who are bosom buddies with/are law enforcement is just a circle.

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131 is just a number-letter cypher for ACA ("Anti-Communist Action"), just like 88 is a cypher for HH. It's the most complicated code the remnants of their brain stems can understand.

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We had a great Ride for Black Lives today, a combination of Black Lives Matter and Boston Bike Party. It deserves some of the news coverage that you (and others) gave to these Nazis.

(Here are my photos.)

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it really was. and huge.

the reception the group got as we rolled along was great.

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and educational experience yesterday. I was moved by the speeches, especially by Rep. Liz Miranda and a powerful poem by young Bikes Not Bombs member Joseph Pires.

It was a great experience riding with solidarity with more than a thousand fellow cyclists through the streets of Roxbury and Dorchester, and watching all the local residents hanging out of windows and balconies, waving and cheering while cars honked horns in support.

I actually passed the phalanx of bike police massing near Park Plaza on my ride down to Franklin Park, but I saw a grand total of two police officers during the entire event. They all stayed with the Beacon Hill protests.

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It happened again in 1991, when they gave a speaking platform to Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke at Old South Meeting House.

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David Duke is a huge Trump supporter. So if you support Trump you are on the same side as the guy who ran the KKK.

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And Joe Biden was a huge Strom Thurmond supporter. What’s your point?

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Show me where Biden still supports him. Unlike David Duke and Dear Leader, Biden has shown the capacity to grow and evolve.

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Right on, Adam.

The choice is binary. This isn’t about what Biden believed decades ago.

The choice is between Trump and what he believes today - people in Florida shouting ‘White power’ are “great people” - vs what Biden believes today.

There is no equivalency.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/28/politics/trump-t...

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I’m not defending Trump. They are both terrible options for President.
But since you asked, here you go.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0X75QI861o

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Today Trump sent a propoganda video of a man shouting "white power." Your comparison of Biden to Thurmond is silly when compared to the current White House occupant tweeting obvious support for "white power."

By the way, in spite Strom's racism, he was oddly also willing to have sex with a black woman. I have no compassion for him. Yet the reality is that he at least paid for his daughter to have a good childhood, paid for her to attend college and made sure, within the limits that he lived, would have a good life.

Add that Strom's black, out of wedlock daughter was an open secret in the Carolinas. In other words all the white folks who wanted black folks to stay in their place, probably were well aware that there Senator also had sex with at least one black woman. So much for the, forgive the pun, black and white of racism. It's a terrible and gross problem that we need to solve.

Not to excuse Strom Thurmond for being a racist bigot.

But if you want to put Biden down by association find a person who is actually worse than Thurmond.

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The guy who has sat alone in a cage for a living for the last 35 years, former Boston Cab and now Green Cab dispatcher John Hugo and his incel cohorts Samson and Mark felt the need to get in on all this BLM heat.

So they put out the clarion call and like every other time, barely anyone shows up on their side, because most racists are pussies.

They do, however, count on the crowds many times their size that always show up to protest against them. Giving the cops whose budget most of them are screaming about more OT. When if they just were left alone at their racist circle jerks, they’d barely be a blip.

Instead they get national attention that makes them gleeful for a few minutes. And when I got in Hugo’s face with a camera at the event he had at BPD HQ, he kept running to the cops to have me arrested.

They wanted nothing to do with him the three times he begged them.

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Hugo goes nuts when you call him an uglier Louie DiPalma.

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Where is the Nazi flag? I don’t see one

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That's the flag. The swastika is not the only Nazi symbol. For more info, please see the link in the third paragraph of the story.

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Not just a Nazi symbol, it's closely associated with Heinrich Himmler and the SS. Ya know, the ones who ran the death camps.

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It's like a turd being amazed that flies show up.

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When not excusing Trump treason they hang with these douchenuggets.

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Dude - we know you pick things up and put them down.

What you don't know is that 20% body fat on a guy is nothing to show off.

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And the sleeves fell off.

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In 1961, the Harvard Crimson reported on some American Nazis showing up here to picket the showing of the movie "Exodus:"

The crowd of 500 anti-pickets, composed mainly of refugees from Nazi concentration camps, college students, and labor unionists, sent up a loud yell and descended on the khaki-uniformed men wearing swastika arm bands as they emerged from a car near the theatre.

Most of the 125 uniformed policemen and 30 plainclothesmen on the scene rushed to save the Nazis from the screaming, egg-throwing crowd. After a short struggle, three of the four men were ushered into a side door of the Saxon and taken to safety out another exit. The fourth Nazi, a tall, blond man, had been hustled into a police wagon at the start of the molee.

Deputy Superintendent John J. Slattery of the Boston Police Department said that Rockwell and his men were not arrested, but just taken into custody for their own safety and then released.

After the Nazis had been taken away, Rep. Julius Ansel of the 14th Ward spoke to the crowd over the police public address system. Having marched all afternoon as "a representative and a private citizen," Ansel declared "We have won a victory for decency and freedom."

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