17 January 2017
Whitefish officials outsmart Daily Stormer on parade permit
American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell used to apply for parade permits (PDF excerpt from Defending My Enemy, by Aryeh Neier) he hoped would be denied so that he could generate publicity by filing lawsuits claiming his constitutional rights were being violated. Another American Nazi leader, Frank Collin, reprised the tactic in 1977 by applying for a parade permit to march in Skokie, IL, which had a large Jewish population and many Holocaust survivors.
Ever since the Daily Stormer announced it would march 200 armed skinheads through Whitefish, I’ve believed that the Stormer’s leader, Andrew Anglin, was using Rockwell’s playbook, hoping his parade permit would be denied on constitutionally dubious grounds, thereby exposing Whitefish as a community of hypocrites, establishing himself as a defender of the First Amendment, and gaining valuable publicity in the process. That explains why his application for a parade permit was incomplete.
But Whitefish’s government and civic leaders didn’t take the bait. Instead, they outsmarted Herr Anglin. As City Manager Chuck Stearns’ letter to Anglin explains, the permit was in the process of being approved when Anglin decided to postpone the march. And it can still be approved it Anglin changes his mind.
There will be special conditions:
(1) Submit another money order for $65.00. Large parades require a $125.00 application fee. We have cashed your $60.00 money order, so please remit another payment of $65.00.
(2) I will waive the requirement for a Certificate of Insurance so as not to limit your right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
(3) I will waive the requirement that you have to petition or notify adjacent property owners — we will do that notification ourselves in this case.
(3) There can be no concealed or unconcealed (open carry) weapons for this march. Section 45-8-351 (2) of the Montana Criminal Code gives cities the power to prevent and suppress the carrying of concealed or unconcealed weapons to a public assembly, publicly owned building, park under its jurisdiction, or school. A copy of the law is shown below:
CHAPTER 8. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ORDER. Part 3. Weapons. Restriction On Local Government Regulation Of Firearms, 45-8-351. (2)(a) For public safety purposes, a city or town may regulate the discharge of rifles, shotguns, and handguns. A county, city, town, consolidated local government, or other local government unit has power to prevent and suppress the carrying of concealed or unconcealed weapons to a public assembly, publicly owned building, park under its jurisdiction, or school, and the possession of firearms by convicted felons, adjudicated mental incompetents, illegal aliens, and minors.
(5) Parade route. Omitted by Flathead Memo. See the PDF.
(6) You will need to provide 10 portable toilets on East 4th Street at the assembly site to accommodate your approximately 200+ attendees.
In other words, the ball is back in your court, Herr Anglin. Don’t bawl about it. And if you do come to Whitefish, you’ll be welcome to exercise your First Amendment rights with the polite there to protect you from a brawl, and probably hundreds of witnesses making appropriate gestures as you strut.
Whitefish finessed this well. But the city needs to rewrite its application for a parade permit, which, as can be inferred from Conditions 2 & 3, has some constitutional vulnerabilities. The city’s council, which meets tonight, should get started on that right now.