David Duke Arrested in Czech Republic

[jundp 191]

Ex-Louisiana KKK chief arrested in Prague: police

1 day ago

PRAGUE (AFP) — A former US Ku Klux Klan chief was arrested Friday in a Prague restaurant while he was on a speaking tour here, Czech police said.

Former Grand Wizard of the Louisiana-founded Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, was arrested on suspicion of promoting movements seeking the suppression of human rights, police spokesman Jan Mikulovsky told local media.

The arrest, in a tourist area of picturesque old Prague, took place in "quite confused" circumstances, said David Janda, the head of an anti-extremism unit of the city's police force.

Janda said Duke -- who had been due to give three lectures in the Czech Republic -- was guarded at the restaurant's entrance by militants belonging to a known far-right group "Narodni Odpor," which means national resistance.

Duke, a US citizen, is suspected of denying or approving of the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes, according to the CTK news agency. This crime is punishable by up to three years in prison in the Czech Republic.

Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer and Human Rights and Minorities Minister Michael Kocab had each expressed disapproval of the visit earlier in the week.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 by a group of US Civil War veterans from the defeated Confederacy, a group of southern states that upheld slavery and maintained African Americans were inferior to whites.

It is notorious the world over for terrorising black Americans through lynchings, cross burnings and other hate crimes.

The group enjoyed a peak membership of about five million in 1925, including politicians and even a member of the US Supreme Court.

But the Klan went into virtual bankruptcy as early as the late 1920s and since the late 1970s, its membership has varied between 3,000 and 6,000.

source

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 by a group of US Civil War veterans from the defeated Confederacy, a group of southern states that upheld slavery and maintained African Americans were inferior to whites.

But, of course, the Civil War had nothing to do with racism and the Rebel Flag is about culture, not hate

[one...two...tree 2,762]

What an #######. Serves him right.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Senator Robert Byrd must be disappointed.

[Ban Hammer 13,332]

i guess his czech has been cached.

[jundp 191]

i guess his czech has been cached.

David Duke is an #######. My first election to vote in was him vs. Edwin Edwards for governor of Lousiana!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

i guess his czech has been cached.

David Duke is an #######. My first election to vote in was him vs. Edwin Edwards for governor of Lousiana!

Oh man...I remember he used that song from Bryan Adams... Adams was actually pretty angry for Duke using his song.

[mendeleev 68]

Eventually, occasionally, a semblance of justice makes an appearance.

[stangguy 0]

Eventually, occasionally, a semblance of justice makes an appearance.

How is this justice? Being arrested for sharing your opinion is something that is intollerable. If one wants to deny the horrors of the holocaust or even support the attrocities that occured or support racial pride and seperation, so be it. That makes them a bigot but it doesn't make them a criminal.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

everything you do can come back and bite you in the a$$ sooner or later

[peejay 327]

Eventually, occasionally, a semblance of justice makes an appearance.

How is this justice? Being arrested for sharing your opinion is something that is intollerable. If one wants to deny the horrors of the holocaust or even support the attrocities that occured or support racial pride and seperation, so be it. That makes them a bigot but it doesn't make them a criminal.

In many parts of Western Europe this type of free speech and free expression is not tolerated as it is here in the USA. I had read in the newspaper that many groups in Western Europe that espouse these ideologies base their websites here in the USA to get around controls in their own countries.

Does getting arrested really serve him right just because someone doesn't like his ideology? That can work both way too. Life can be a two way street.

I kind of like the fact that free speech and free expression is a constitutionally protected right here in the USA. For better or worse.

[mendeleev 68]

Eventually, occasionally, a semblance of justice makes an appearance.

How is this justice? Being arrested for sharing your opinion is something that is intollerable. If one wants to deny the horrors of the holocaust or even support the attrocities that occured or support racial pride and seperation, so be it. That makes them a bigot but it doesn't make them a criminal.

stangguy expresses that peculiar variant of american imperialism that american standards of freedom are inflexibly universal. They are not.

It is well known that in many European nations, free speech is more limited than in the USA. (And, in the USA, freedom of speech is not absolute, either.) Many European nations have laws prohibiting certain kinds of racists speech and conduct, as well as laws prohibiting denial of the Holocaust. In their societies, these laws make sense. Mere US citizenship doesn't give the American bigot a license to break those laws. Duke probably knew he was breaking the law in the Czech Republic -- and if not, then, as law and order types are sometimes fond of saying, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

Duke's comments would be protected here in the USA. That they may not be in Europe is not intolerable. Their history, their experiences of 20th century racist barbarism, and their sense of where human rights begin and end are different than ours. (In many European states, for instance, although not in the Czech Republic, human rights extends further into the economic sphere than here.) For an American to go abroad and behave as though he has precisely the same freedoms as here is, if not intolerable, then at least indicative of stupidity if the American lawbreaker feigns surprise at his predicament.

When we Americans go abroad, we are guests in foreign countries and foreign cultures and should be have accordingly. (Remember the Ugly American?) His arrest shows that Duke did not.

If a racist American bigot goes to a European state where expression of those heinous views are legally constrained and gets himself arrested for disregarding those laws, justice begins to be done.

Edited April 26, 2009 by novotul

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

nm

Edited April 26, 2009 by Randomizer

[tallcoolone 102]

Sounds like he got railroaded

[peejay 327]

Eventually, occasionally, a semblance of justice makes an appearance.

How is this justice? Being arrested for sharing your opinion is something that is intollerable. If one wants to deny the horrors of the holocaust or even support the attrocities that occured or support racial pride and seperation, so be it. That makes them a bigot but it doesn't make them a criminal.

stangguy expresses that peculiar variant of american imperialism that american standards of freedom are inflexibly universal. They are not.

It is well known that in many European nations, free speech is more limited than in the USA. (And, in the USA, freedom of speech is not absolute, either.) Many European nations have laws prohibiting certain kinds of racists speech and conduct, as well as laws prohibiting denial of the Holocaust. In their societies, these laws make sense. Mere US citizenship doesn't give the American bigot a license to break those laws. Duke probably knew he was breaking the law in the Czech Republic -- and if not, then, as law and order types are sometimes fond of saying, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

Duke's comments would be protected here in the USA. That they may not be in Europe is not intolerable. Their history, their experiences of 20th century racist barbarism, and their sense of where human rights begin and end are different than ours. (In many European states, for instance, although not in the Czech Republic, human rights extends further into the economic sphere than here.) For an American to go abroad and behave as though he has precisely the same freedoms as here is, if not intolerable, then at least indicative of stupidity if the American lawbreaker feigns surprise at his predicament.

When we Americans go abroad, we are guests in foreign countries and foreign cultures and should be have accordingly. (Remember the Ugly American?) His arrest shows that Duke did not.

If a racist American bigot goes to a European state where expression of those heinous views are legally constrained and gets himself arrested for disregarding those laws, justice begins to be done.

Far be it from me to say this guy is not subject to local jurisdictions. It's their friggin' country and they can do what the heck want to. I'm just saying that I prefer the rights we have here in the USA and my above comments earlier in the thread were in reference to Americans that wish for certain restrictions of free speech and expression of ideas here in the USA. And believe me...there are some here in the USA that do not want opposing views to see the light of day. Let the people decide what is true and what is bogus...not the censors and propagandists.

Some of the comments I see here on the thread reveling in his arrest have more to do with Duke's ideology than the fact that Europeans have a right to decide what level of free speech to allow in their countries. If it was someone else besides David Duke or an ideology that they buy into, I think they might react a lot different.

Personally I could give a rat's rectum about David Duke.