Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa

We are seeing a new phase in the violent confrontations between political extremists.

Legitimate "Freedom of Speech" rallies are being infiltrated by groups of people who not only accept violence, but also seek it. As the press has reported in Charlottesville, the demonstrators were seen getting off of buses wearing helmets and body armor, and carrying weapons. They sought battle.

When the issues involve Black grievances, the legitimate groups find their ranks swelled by members of the anti-police group Black Lives Matter, an outgrowth of the violence of the Ferguson, Missouri, riots.

On the issue of preservation of Confederate artifacts, concerned guardians of history find themselves joined by uninvited White Supremacists, Nazis, and many in Ku Klux Klan regalia.

Over a long career in law enforcement, federal and local, I have been involved in surveillance, investigating, confronting, and interviewing these people. It has been my experience that many of these White people base their grievances on perceived inequities of affirmative action programs, but there have been notable cases where I have seen the fiery gleam of a madman in the eyes of the person being interviewed. You can see this same thing in photos of Charles Manson.

What I found most disturbing, and even frightening, was the images of the torchlit parade in Charlottesville last night that was hauntingly reminiscent of the marches of Hitler's Nazis in 1930s Germany.

We have seen KKK members parading around on the fringes of demonstrations in their ludicrous regalia for decades, waving the Battle Flag of Northern Virginia (erroneously called the Confederate Flag, or the Stars and Bars.) We have seen neo-Nazis striving to get some press attention while wearing reproductions of Hitler's Brown Shirt uniforms and waving flags with swastikas.

But, a mass torchlight parade, in the style of 1930s Nazis, as we saw last night is something new, and must not be tolerated. I am horrified at how this movement seems to be catching on, and is attracting young people.


Carl in Tampa

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