‘Traded the Pointed Caps for Baseball Caps’: Masked White Supremacist Group Patriot Front Marches Through Virginia Beach Oceanfront, Sparking First Amendment Debate
What’s more important, protecting the First Amendment, or silencing hate speech?
That’s the question many are asking online after a group of demonstrators carried the Confederate flag through one Virginia city.
The video, posted on Facebook on Monday, shows a group of people wearing masks, marching along the Virginia Beach oceanfront. They are holding several flags, including the U.S. Betsy Ross flag with 13 stars, the Confederate flag, and the Patriot Front flag.
Patriot Front is a white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group. They were formed in the aftermath of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally by Thomas Rousseau.
The group has not confirmed that it was their event.
Some people argued the group was celebrating the country’s 250th birthday by featuring the flags. No one was holding the American flag in the video.
Many people were shocked and confused after seeing the video online.
“What ICE agents do on their day off,” William Martin wrote on Facebook.
“I thought they hated masks,” Bill Brozen added.
“Traded the pointed caps for baseball caps, huh?” Jennifer Wooldridge wrote, referring to the Ku Klux Klan.
“They have the same rights as anyone else under the First Amendment, free speech, and the right to assemble. If they turn violent, they are subject to the rule of law,” Larry Gibson wrote on Facebook.
Hate speech is generally protected by the First Amendment.
According to the American Library Association, the government cannot criminalize or punish speech simply because it is offensive, hateful, or expresses bias.
However, this isn’t an absolute right. Speech can lose protection if it falls within certain categories of illegal harm.
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This means it’s not a crime for the group to carry these flags; it’s what they do or say afterward that could land them behind bars. The same can be said for any demonstrator.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to multiple Virginia state and local officials to get their opinion on whether this incident constitutes hate speech. They have yet to respond.