In the 1919 case of Abrams v. U.S., the Supreme Court upheld the convictions of five people for printing leaflets that contained "disloyal, scurrilous and abusive language about the form of government of the United States." History remembers the case, however, for the dissenting opinion, written by (Boston native) Oliver Wendell Holmes and joined by (Louisville native but Boston transplant) Louis Brandeis. That dissent famously presented the theory of a "marketplace of ideas," which argued that the best remedy for offensive speech was good speech, not censorship. The wisdom of that concept was on entertaining display yesterday, as various demonstrators and counter-demonstrators traded barbs at the Holocaust Memorial downtown.
Photo (of another response to another Nazi demonstration yesterday) courtesy of Fabian Mohr (check out his flickr site to see what the signs say)
The occasion was a ceremony at Faneuil Hall to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, and was livened up by the presence of white supremacists from Arkansas and the many locals who turned out to jeer them. After failing to curse openly at a man in a swastika t-shirt whom we passed on the street in Somerville a few weeks ago (in fairness, while Bostonist is not small at 6'4", 185, this guy was easily 6'6", 250, and we had our baby with us), we were looking forward to watching a large crowd hurl invective at a small group of racists. Unfortunately , Mother's Day obligations kept us from attending, and now that we've seen the newspaper and television reports, we're really sorry we missed it. The white supremacists were straight from central casting, with shaved heads, black satin jackets, and silly signs; the protesters were numerous, passionate, and had plenty of well-coordinated, rhyming chants; and the cops looked suitably grim with the rain dripping off their riot gear face visors. But best of all, there was an unrelated animal rights protest on the scene, leading to the most bizarre and wonderful juxtaposition of protest placards that Bostonist has ever seen: "Another Grandma Boycotting Veal" (carried by an animal rights advocate) and "Free Ham Sandwiches" (carried by a white supremacist). (Yeah, we don't get that one either. Being Jewish, we know that ham sandwiches aren't kosher, but if your goal is to express your hatred of Jews by alluding to their dietary laws, why take such a subtle route? Better would have been, "Ham Sandwiches Are Very Delicious, But You Cannot Eat Them! Ha Ha!") All we can say is, we like free speech a lot.
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